Hold my beer... And let me know what language or languages you might dabble in 2022!

Lamont in 2021: I'm studying only one language to get really good at it Lamont in 2022: 7 languages it is

Who all here made it that far into the video? LOL!

The point at 2:15 about people forgetting what's it like to be a beginner in a language is extremely important to understand, I've wanted to bring it up in my videos for a long time now, but I keep forgetting to do so. Its so incredibly common for people to recommend stuff like "just start reading novels", "just watch shows/movies without subtitles", "just go speak to natives" and so on to complete beginners, whilst completely forgetting how tiring, difficult, and seemingly impossible it feels to someone who pretty much is completely illiterate. I remember how difficult it was to consume content designed for natives even as an "intermediate", at around ~3000 to 5000 words learned, which is why I always talk about building a baseline lol. Also, I pretty much instantly clicked on the video when I read the title, I did not expect to see my own channel in the video lmao. Overall I think its a good video and a great idea - This kind of "limited dabbling" in various different languages can also be applied to dabbling with different hobbies, projects, skills and so on, to see what sticks and what doesn't. You can experience what its like to work on something without having to undertake any risks associated with going all out, nor feel overwhelmed with how long the road is going to be. If what you're setting out to do is short-term and temporary, with a clear end in sight (eg, only for 2 months, not 10+ years), its going to be much easier to stay motivated and actually finish what you started.

Starting a new language after sticking to one for a while humbles you because you're a beginner again, you can't understand anything and have to study things and learn words, you can't just binge watch content like in your advanced language that just becomes leisure time at some point which you take for granted, and you're excited to get to that point again. It also boosts your confidence because you realize where you once were with your other language and just how good you are at it now ☺️ I think once you get to B2-C2 and realize there are still things you don't know(just like in your native language btw, try reading a difficult novel in it) it's easy to want perfection and doubt yourself cause you notice little things like still encountering words you don't know or your slight but still existing accent but with this you can actually see that yes, you're an advanced speaker haha

I teach English to other Brazilians for a living, and sometimes it's hard for me to remember what it's like being a beginner in English, since it's been 14 years since I started studying it and I got a C2 level certificate 4 years ago. Learning new languages is essential so that I can truly understand my students' struggles. It makes me wonder how someone who teaches their native language and has never studied any other languages can do it.

I have studied Japanese for several years, my Japanese still isn't anywhere near where I want it to be, but I've got me to an intermediate / advanced level and a kind of lost interest after a little while and started picking up Russian and Norwegian. The more Russian and Norwegian I study the more I feel like I want to study Japanese again as well. It's weird how they all connected that way I don't know how to quite explain it but I know the feeling.

When I dabble in Italian, my desire to read Russian explodes. I love learning Italian in Russian. I think you should try to learn some of these new languages in Swedish. It is a very different experience than with your native language because you are pulling from different memories and experiences with known words than with your native language. Also, you are hilarious! Absolutely highlight of my week!

Personally, I have decided to study all 7139 of the world's languages next year, but I can understand why some might not be prepared to take that step

When I started learning Dutch I was two weeks in and saw the advice "For languages that are similar to English, you could start reading on day one and understand most of it", which of course is insane... but I believed it. I forced myself through a novel looking up every word (the first few chapters were like a blur and I had no idea what was happening). Anyway, the point of this story is it ended up being the BEST advice I ever had. Even though it's insane it bloody worked. Early on in month two when I started my second book, I was able to read it pretty comfortably. By book four or five it was smooth sailing (keeping to the fantasy genre). Your day 1 Game of Thrones advice is dumb but maybe not as dumb as you think.

I've just started learning Welsh and I'm going to put a lot of effort into it next year. As someone who was born in and still lives in Wales I've always felt a bit cheated that I lived in an area that only spoke English and therefore couldn't grow up with the language. I'm making it my mission to become fluent in this language.

This is great. Peoples description of B1 left me very misinformed. When I was able to pass B1 tests in Greek I basically considered myself peoples description of A1. Like I understood very little and didn’t really feel like I was able to say ouch either.

Also when starting a new language you get to see how much you’ve learned from the other languages you study.

Being a beginner again is refreshing, during the pandemic I found out that learning a new language helps me deal with stress. So I have started Italian and Swedish in the last two years and dabbled in some other languages too 😅 By the way, the other day I found out the word "onion" is almost the same in Russian and Swedish, thought it was cool 😊

I like this idea. Thanks for the great video. Right before I sleep too, so I'm bound to have good dreams and wake up full of enthusiasm :D

I really like this video. Particularly with regards to remembering what it's like to be a beginner again, I feel like you managed to put into words a feeling that I've had recently. I've been studying Japanese for a long time now, on and off for a while, but fairly consistently since the start of Covid. I'm now at the highest level I've ever been in Japanese, which is still not particularly high. But I decided to start studying Chinese a few months ago. It's been extremely interesting to see what it's like to understand so little of a foreign language again, particularly what it's like to try to build listening comprehension in a language so unrelated to anything I speak. It's something I must have gone through at some point with Japanese, but when you're first starting out there's this point you reach where even when the sentence is spoken slowly and really easy, so you could understand it perfectly if it were written, when you hear it your brain takes too long to process it, and then the next sentence comes and you get overwhelmed. It's both frustrating and super motivating because you realize how far you have left to go in the new language and also exactly how far you've come in your more advanced language.

You're on the right track. When the novelty of the new or active language wears off, starting another language, or picking up an activity from where you left off on another previous language, triggers the excitement back into all your languages. I've been doing this for well over a decade and a half and see this cycle at least twice each year, particularly since I have other hobbies that will side track my focus or routine for a season. (I am active with 8 languages, not counting English). Finding the spark of excitement to continue your program or pick up where you last left off is the real challenge for each learner, not the actual learning itself.

Love this! So excited to see which languages you learn this year!

Thanks for sharing this, it got me excited and I already want to choose languages this December, preparing for 2022 when I finally get started. I like this "spilling effect" when you transfer your curiosity of an A0 language towards a C1 language, it's an amazing eye opener and it opens the lid for greatness. That's why I believe that your strategy of seeing from a beginner's perspective is sound and could actually work. Anyway, I wish you the best in 2022!

This was actually one of Khatzumoto's ideas. He talked about taking a miniscule break from L1 (Your main language) and study or dabble in L2 (the other language). He said that doing this reignites your passion in L1.

Great video Lamont! I've actually been considering doing the opposite. Since 2020, I've dabbled in too many languages so in 2022 I would like to study maybe 5 at most.

Thank you Lamont for putting words on something I couldn't quite pinpoint! 🙏 The "curiosity transfer" you mentioned is a thing and now that I realise this I'll make the most of it 😊

This video resonates so much. I'm currently doing a second language at the same time as my Spanish, and it's helping me get that freshness back. Good stuff.

I love your videos. I've been studying English for two years and you are helping me a lot. Thank you so much!

And I wish you 100 k subscribers in 2022✊

Great concept! I have been studying Spanish for almost 3 years and I definitely recognize the monotonous feeling of studying that language. I’m interested in ancient languages like Latin and Ancient Greek so I think I will try your method. Also besides being fun it will also boost linguistic knowledge!

This is a really interesting idea and I’m curious to see how it turns out. I wonder if I should try something similar. I love languages, but my main focus has always been Japanese. Ive always wanted to also learn French, Spanish, Korean, Maori and ASL (as well as almost every other language I hear, but this seems to remain my core list), but I’ve always told myself that I need to get good enough at Japanese first. Well, I passed JLPT N1 last December, and like you, I would say I’m at a C1 level. But that feeling has still not gone away, that I’m still not good enough. I think it would be refreshing to dabble in another language and get that beginner buzz back again. It’s so hard to choose which one though.

I was thinking of doing something like this too. I am a French teacher, but I have spent the past 9 months learning Spanish. I think if I keep learning new languages, I will be better able to understand what my students are going through because I will be going through the same thing, only in a different language. Or maybe I am tired of being on the intermediate plateau in Spanish so I just want a change. Maybe a different language every year. With a year, I can get to a decent level, where I can understand and be understood, but not perfect. With just one or two months of a language, I might forget it. But with a year, I will mostly retain it I think.

This is the best language learning advice I’ve come across in a long long time! I’m actually excited again 😭

Great video, Lamont. I actually really like this idea. I've been learning English for 4 years now. (my focus) And since January of 2020, I've dabbled in other languages - namely French, Turkish, Latin, Spanish and Russian. It definitely helps you to keep your curiosity.

i'm definitely gonna try this too, i've been 'learning' english for about 10 years now, and 8 months ago or so i started learning italian and being at that learning stage again where you're discovering the basics it's really motivating really, my italian's pretty good now i still have a lot to learn but i'm happy with my process, about a b1/b2 level now, so i might look into what other languages i could explore

Well if you can learn Irish from scratch then fair play to ya. It'll give me more confidence to take up learning it again. I will definitely keep up with your progress. Best of luck

Interesting! I think you're right, the excitement of being in that beginner phase in one language really does seem to spill over into other languages too :) Also, my main target language has a good amount of borrowed words from the new language I'm learning, and I definitely get so satisfied when find a new one hahaha

Hey Lamont! Awesome video! If you're open to suggestions, I'd love to see Cantonese as one of the languages that you try to learn a little of next year. Maybe I am a little biased because I've also been learning it, but I'm mainly really curious on how you'd get on with it since it's a diglossic language (which means the written form and the way the language is spoken are different). And that, in my opinion, makes it much more challenging than learning Mandarin, since it's very uncommon to find matching subtitles to the video/movie! And arguably harder than Japanese since Japanese has a TON of resources available. I'll hold your beer for you if you're up for the challenge! :P

Wow, this seems to be a great idea! I'm focusing on Polish right now, and, because my native language is Russian, after a couple of month I can understand quite a lot, like on B1-B2 level, but the grammar is getting a bit tedious and confusing. At the same time I feel like I'm getting more and more interested in dabbling in some Swedish (and Latvian, and Italian) and brushing up on my English pronunciation and writing. So I won't feel as guilty about starting Swedish on Duolingo then :) And I've already ordered a couple of books in Swedish just because they were on sale... I'm also currently training to become a teacher of Russian as a foreign language, so this puts my language learning hobby into a whole different perspective.

😮 that house comparison OMG lifehanging for me! Thankyou!!!

Love this plan! Sounds like something my brain would also really like, so maybe I'll give it a go! Right now, I'm learning Spanish, but I haven't given up on French. Also wouldn't mind refreshing my Chinese for 2022. Thanks for sharing :)

Thank you for this entertaining video! :D really enjoy the way with which you approach learning and dabbling in languages. For myself, I hope to start learning Hebrew in 2022.

I've been hyper focused on Japanese since the Pandemic started. But, I think I'm going to dabble in Spanish this year. I've dabbled before, and I already speak French so I have a huge leg up, and I recently started Lingq so I have access to a great tool and beginner content. I remember Lindie Bottes talking about multitasking in language study. She suggested spending a little time on a language close to your own language (a Germanic or Latin language) and the majority on a difficult language (like an Asian language). I also want to learn German for Genealogical reasons. So, maybe I'll dabble there too. Use the Genealogy as my study material would be fun :D

If this means there will be a video or video(s) about your noob impressions of Russian, then I am all for it. I love being reminded of what the early stages in learning Russian is like. Less a tent in the pouring rain and more a tent in deep space where you don't know which way is up.

Speaking as someone who’s started about half of Duolingo’s language trees, yeah, it’s safe to say I’m in favor of dabbling. Every once in a while I find a language that goes on my long-term or mid-term to learn list.

I like this idea a lot. Thanks!

I tried something similar to this in 2020. My main two study languages were (still are, with a plus one) Norwegian and French (hmmm, how'd I find this channel?). My motivation was that if I'd allow myself a bit of dabbling, my curiosity would perpetually be satisfied and I could retain focus on my main two. I did a new language on Duolingo each month. What was the result? Russian is now my third major study language, with Irish and Finnish consuming regular time as well.

Currently attempting to learn 3 languages (Mandarin, Russian and Mongolian). I am planning on dabbling in Italian and Vietnamese. I have to agree with you, once I started learning a third language things became clearer in my second one.

This is a really great idea! I feel like I've come upon a serious block in my language learning as of late and really need something like this to boost my curiosity and reignite my passion for languages again. My brother and I did this a lot during the pandemic and I think it really helped both of us. I did about a two-month stint in Hindi and Greek (respectively) and I found that it really sparked my passion for languages again. My only question after watching would be could you use languages you've already studied as your dabble languages? I think you might have already answered this to some extent in your video, but this was something I'm curious about (slash thinking about trying myself)!

You have succeeded in describing, so simply and wonderfully, what I have been experiencing these past few months. I find that time away from a primary target language is almost necessary in the learning process in the case that the primary target language loses its initial passion. This is why I have a few 'fall back' languages that are all either A0 or A1 in order for me to (like you said) build that curiosity again. After maybe a month in one of these 'fall back' languages, I go back to my primary target language and start to reconnect with it again on a new, more nuanced level than I ever have. Even right now, I am currently going back to my B2 Mandarin after one month dabbling in Bangla (Bengali), and I find my passion for advancing has been rekindled. Glad to know that I have been doing something that others like yourself also agree with!

I actually like this channel, you are exuding some positive energy out there 💥

At first I was skeptical... but I have to say that I really like this idea! Not too constrained, but there is still a framework for the year as far as dabbling. The curiosity of starting a new language is super engrossing and motivating and it's very true that it can have an effect on your other languages... I really liked your analogy to a nice house vs a tent and wanting to live in the nice house for a while! So true! Don't learn the language just to get to a certain level but also stick with it and enjoy the content that you now are able to fully appreciate/understand because of your level. I haven't done that enough with my German, but I should! Good luck in 2022!

Interesting to hear your point of view on this matter of sustaining excitement and motivation over the long term process of learning a language. It’s a really good topic and there are probably a number of ways to address it, but your new idea resonates with me. In the last few months I’ve moved through exclusively studying one language (Greek) , trying to find a way to simultaneously study two very seriously (Greek and French) then trying to find a way to study three at the same time very seriously (Greek, French and Italian), none of which strategies worked and then giving up on all strategies and going organic shall we say, at which point a natural mode emerged for me - see below. I’ve learnt that I get really bored working one language all day every day and I just burn out after a number of months of doing that. I’ve learnt that I can’t seriously study more than one at a time- I just find I can’t do that. But I have also learnt that learning more than one language at a time keeps me interested and gives me variety. And there are all sorts of carryovers - sometimes it’s about excitement from one language spilling over onto the others, or sometimes having a bad time with one language is compensated for because I’m having a good time with another one and that’s made my day. Sometimes I seem to get transferred functionality so listening to a lot of input in one language seems to improve how well I comprehend another. Doing a lot of repetition practice out loud with one language helps me become more verbal in another if I’m at that stage in developing that language. My current system is to spend six weeks fully concentrated on learning one language 2-3 hours a day, give half an hour also to each of 2 other languages and maybe 10 minutes - 15 minutes a day to 2 dabble languages. After six weeks I rotate the serious languages and a new one gets the lion’s share. And on days where I’m too tired I won’t study the dabble languages, but they get attention most days and at least twice a week. And so far this is working well. The dabble languages (Arabic and Norwegian) are like ice-cream treats at the end of the day, mostly on Duo, and I’m very careful to not study them much so that they don’t become “serious”. My idea of them is that they are simmering on a very low heat on the side of the stove. The two languages not getting top priority could be said to be in maintenance mode although I do try to slightly advance them each day. But I also think that trying to deal with having learning more than one language at a time is something to only do when you’ve got a pretty good idea of how YOU best learn a language because in my experience with your first foreign language you’re not just learning the language you’re trying to figure out HOW to learn it - how YOU best learn it and that’s quite a tricky thing to figure out in my experience.

Interesting concept! I actually still remember when I was a absolute beginner in Spanish and French. (Now I can read most of what I find online, though my other skills still need work. However, I did take translation practice courses in both languages.) I got started by finding podcasts on iTunes and listening to them on my way to work. (I worked as an electrician at the time, and most jobs had at least a half hour commute one way from the shop to work.) I actually do hope to join the hyperpolyglot club, mainly to be able to communicate with more people.

Intriguing idea. I find this happens when I start a new knit/crochet project. I start looking at all the other ones I have sitting, waiting for me to return.

This video was a wild ride and I love it!

Very interesting concept and I'm looking forward to seeing how it pans out. I myself have been dabbling in Romanian recently and it's a welcome change of pace from Japanese (main). When my Japanese is a bit stronger I'm planning on dabbling in Mandarin and Korean

"When I get into something, I get the idea that it is going to be *my thing* for the rest of time - to hell with all else." I haven't felt this attacked in a while 😂 I swear though, the timing of your videos is uncanny (for me). They always seem to come at the exact time I need them. Case in point: I have *just* (literally just yesterday) decided to dabble in Dutch, after having spent 2 years saying that I won't for at least another 2-3 years, or until after I've gotten my french to a level where I can comfortably maintain it. 😂 Oh well, I guess we'll see haha. Excellent video, as always! Good luck with your dabbling!

I like doing something similar to this too! I'm focusing on German(A1) and "dabbling" in French, Swedish and Finnish, I do intend to stick with them long term tho. One reason I like it is because I'd rather have some background knowledge about a language, especially vocabulary vise, floating somewhere in my head when I decide to dedicate myself to it a year or something later, it makes learning grammar and comprehending the language so much easier and faster and less frustrating, especially with languages that are very different from your own

Been studying my TL for about a year. Was getting frustrated at the slow progress I have had recently, but must admit, having added a dabble language (DL) it has peaked my interest in my TL (I decided to give this a go when this video came out). But for a reason maybe not mentioned, it made me feel more comfortable about my TL and therefore makes me want to spend more time in my TL after doing some DL DuoLingo! Very interesting concept this. Looking forward to see how things progress through the year. Have already identified the next DL! I enjoy the content, keep it coming!

I was thinking about this topic yesterday. It’s surprising that the algorithm placed this video before me 😳 I’m primarily learning Japanese and also want to try out Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Tagalog. Don’t know exactly which one I want to learn first though. I also need to maintain my Portuguese and Spanish abilities. This video has encouraged me to want to tackle on a new challenge next year. Once I figure out a plan, I’ll do my absolute best!

I love the idea!❤

I am delighted to hear, that you delved into different languages as well :) I myself speak native-like to fluent 3 languages and semi-fluent swedish,portuguese and spanish. As I am Bulgarian and do live in germany for many year,German has no longer the status of a foreign language,rather a second language. Thus ,as you said , I am no longer as interested to develop my C1 English or C2 German into more native-like varieties :) Your channel is great and inspires me to start one of my own.Cheers Dimitar

I felt complacent about my English for 3 years. Well it was good I could understand movies, KZfaq almost 100 percent but when it comes to reading I encountered a lot of rare words that are not used in daily conversation (like to irk someone). Still I can usually understand what's going on in the story through context but I have really mastered reading. Five months ago I started to learn Japanese and it really fired me up to tackle this aspect of the language. I'm not much of a book person but now I try to read something, at least a chapter a day and I guess it builds more advanced vocabulary a little bit but I don't read a lot. Well that's another task to solve.

That sounds like a great plan! I'm interested to see what languages you're going to pick.

Have fun and good luck! I hope this scheme gives you what you're looking for. You'll certainly learn something cool along the way. I've been doing something kinda similar with Mandarin (my main), Hokkien and Japanese (the alts). In 2022 I may try fooling around with Swedish, Spanish, or Greek (did some Attic and Koine in college, but it's been a while and anyway it isn't the kind of Greek you'd want among actual Greek speakers). Whatever it takes to keep the fire burning!

I've been doing this with Klingon and I finished the tree last week, now I'm trying to make it gold. As you said, no commitment and it satisfies my desire to try other languages than my TL. Definitely recommend.

This is so awesome! You have a new subscriber. I came to the video to see your point of view, because I myself speak 7 languages. I am 23 and I plan to learn some new ones in the future, definitely. I know English, Russian, German, Polish, Spanish, Serbian and I am learning Hungarian. You are such an inspiration and I am always happy to see more fellow polyglots out there. The world is a fantastic place, keep up the good work, man!

I totally thought you were joking 😂👍. I study Korean and Italian now but I used to dabble (in tiny amounts from time to time) in ASL, French, Japanese and Chinese. I stopped dabbling to focus on my main two but I think I might go back to some of them now 🙈

Hrmmmmm I thought that after studying one language for 19 months you'd finally gone mad! But I actually like your takes on this. Would love to see how your journey continues :)

Totally agree. As a language teacher/mentor I'm always starting new languages to test methods and strategies to make sure I know how a beginner feels.

Lamont, I always enjoy your videos and find them informative and amusing. I also like it that you are named after the son in "Sanford & Son."

While of course I wouldn't tell you what languages to pick, it would be interested to see languages from all the different difficulty levels too see how much further you get in a language like Spanish or Italian compared to something like Chinese, Japanese and Arabic.

I honestly thought you were just trolling with the title, but I’m actually excited to see your language plans for 2022. This is what I inadvertently did in 2021 too. I studied Korean for all of 2020, so by the end of the year I was reaching an intermediate plateau, learning was a bit more difficult but also less interesting. So I took up Japanese for a few months, and the result was that my interest and motivation to learn Korean skyrocketed. Throughout 2021 I dabbled in Japanese, Russian, Swedish, Arabic, and ASL. I would never dream of saying that I speak any of these languages, in fact I’ve forgotten most of them, but I do credit them with helping me stick with Korean for another year. They made language learning fun and fresh again, instead of feeling like a chore

Wow omg I LOVE THE 2 MONTHS IDEA!!! I have such an issue with being intrigued to learning or dabbling i. So many languages but then I feel guilty to do so cause then it slows down my main ones. And 7 is exactly my number hahs German (Mothertongue) English (fluent - completely confortable "leisure time" language) Portuguese (fluent - close to English) Mandarin (fluent but not yet that comfortable yet) French - somewhat fluent Spanish - advanced beginner to intermediate Serbian - my feeling obligated to learn language as it's my moms mothertongue and it feels wrong not to try after all the others lol (plus cool to "unlock" a new language family) And well now I also found Jamaican Creole trying to lure me in lol

I didn’t know how much I needed this video

Something that talks to me very strongly is your well delivered analogies and metaphors. and i'm actually gonna do the same thing as you because i get in love with new languages veryyyyy easilyy (even tho i feel as if i'm gonna fall in mad love with one of these and not be able to move on with my "main" language) =P

Wishing you a great upcoming year, I think the plan you mentioned sounds great 😊... I experienced similar thoughts and desires of doing something related, although that time, I participated in NaNoWriMo, ergo writing 1,666 words per day approximately, and in the end, I also wrote some songs and drew a few pictures alongside that. Maybe it has to do something with routine on the one side AND the feeling of anticipation towards something one loves doing anyways on the other. I just want to get better at some languages, but mostly Japanese... I'd love to dabble more into Italian and Finnish... or learn Greek or Russian or Croatian from scratch. 🙂

I've experienced this feeling too! I've been learning Japanese for almost 7-8 years (had Spanish for about 4-5 years) and have no idea what or like to learn from zero anymore. I dabbled in French a bit this year in the Summer and hoping to focus on it a bit more for 2022.

I think it’s a great idea. I hadn’t personally thought of making this year or any year a dabble year but maybe I will. It sounds fun. I’d like any videos about dabbling in an Asian language too btw.

I'm too early in my first foreign language for this to make sense for me, but seems fun and especially makes sense for you as a content creator on language topics

Yeah, looking back and not being able to remember how it was like not knowing a language you're now fluent in is or how it was when you started learning it is insanely weird. I've achieved fluency more than 5 years ago and I literally can't remember how it was not knowing any English. And now that I'm fully committed to Japanese I'm starting to see how it might have been like. But at the same time the few memories I still have of what content I immersed myself in back then feel exactly like how I feel right now when I watch an English video, like I feel like I was able to fully understand everything even though I probably wasn't. So I wonder if I'll look back in the future when my Japanese will reach a high level and think in the same way: "I remember watching this video/show, but I feel like I understood everything back when I watched it".

Very interesting idea! I am currently preparing to take the N2 in Japanese, but at the same time I am quitting university for a year (and regretting it already oof, what was I thinking?). So basically I have been very understimulated in terms of what new things I am learning and this doesn't help with my motivation for Japanese. So I might just take on your challenge and learn some new languages (or other skills?) for small periods of time as well! Also, I assume you will report your progress here? That would be really motivating to see!

I have some suggestions… (feel free to discard to your leisure) - Bulgarian (the “easiest” slavic language, apparently) - Frisian (English’s sister language) - Catalan (the most approachable of Glossika’s freebies; your French knowledge will be a boon with this one) - Cantonese (boilers at full blast) - Romansh (if you won’t, who else will?) - Hungarian (boilers at full blast, European edition) - Basque (I needed a 7th language to suggest)

How exciting! Let us know how it works! I'm starting to learn French but was wondering about a side language too. Maybe I'll wait, since Swedish and French didn't work out so well for you at the same time! I was sort of worried of the same outcome of not knowing either myself too!

Just wanna say that your humor is on point!

Intriguing strategy! I will be interested to learn how it works for you.

The part where you spoke about forgetting what it was like to be a beginner was very interesting. I have often thought about this, and honestly would love to hear more of your thoughts on the topic. I feel like its a great topic for an entire video or discussion as I havent really heard people talk about it often. Ive been learning French for nearly 4 years now, and I absolutely adore the language, but at the same time I feel that a part of the charm is gone. Not because Ive grown to dislike it in any way, but more because it doesnt seem foreign to me anymore. At the beginning the sounds were exciting, the way it was written was exciting, but now its just normal to me, it doesnt have the foreign allure any more, it doesnt sound like a foreign language to me any more. Its hard for me to actually remember how French used to sound to me before I learned it. Its hard for me to understand how someone who doesnt speak French actually hears the language. And its funny to me too that another thing Ive noticed is I subconciously forget that other people in my life dont understand French, when they ask me what something in the language means I think to myself 'Oh thats right, most people dont actually understand this'. Its just something I dont really think about anymore, its just engrained in me that its weird to think about a time when I didnt understand the language. Its actually really interesting. But as you also said Ive grown frustratedin some ways, because I dont remember not knowing the language, all I can see is how far I have to go, all I see are the words and nuances I still have to learn, very rarely do we actually see how much progress we've made from literally knowing 0 to how much we know now. Anyway, keep up the great work.. And I would really love to hear more of your thoughts on the topic

More than anything It seems like you have a lot of fun with learning these languages, and I feel like that’s the main point other than “I want to go to this place and be able to communicate/learn the culture”. Having fun with it is a huge part and not frustrating yourself too much about not getting it off the bat.

Considering you're really fluent in Swedish, it'd be really fun to see how comfortable you could get with Norwegian within 1-2 months!

Thanks for the interesting ideas! I'm only low-intermediate in Mandarin Chinese (after years), but have the itch to start another. I've been considering Korean, Turkish, Japanese or Hindi but I can't decide. Maybe I should try your approach: spend 1 month on each of them, while continuing to study Mandarin. I like your idea of adding some structure (no shorter than A, no longer than B).

I completely agree with you on this. I was beginning to run a little cold on Spanish so decide to mix it up with a bit of French. One week later i am watching your videos, buying Busuu and devouring Spanish again. It somehow seems to fire up language centers of the brain again.

I like your opinions! I usually dabble in one or two languages per year while learning my main language, German. This year I'm dabbling in Italian but via German. It keeps things going, but also adds freshness.

I like the house analogy quite a lot! I waited til I had about 4.5 years of learning German under my belt before I started another language. The issue is making the move too early and that’s what a number of polyglots unfortunately do.

Interesting. I think I experienced exactly what you describe: Reignite the interest in the actual target language by dabbling into an other. I (German) worked my way through the entire Duolingo tree in French last year. I struggled keeping up with learning French the first half of this year. Often doing nothing for days or a week. Then I started with (Brazilian) Portuguese, which I learned instead of French for some time. Now it reversed. I haven't learned any Portuguese for at least a month. Instead now I watch french KZfaqs every day to work on my listening comprehension. A dabble language for next year would be Hindi / Urdu. I wane experience a language that is not written in the Greek / Latin / Cyrillic alphabet. And I already purchased a copy of "Lingva Latina per se illvstrata"...

4:53 I understand this completely. My main language focus is Russian. When I took a break and “dabbled” in Norwegian and Dutch, I felt a surge of energy and almost as if Russian became easier to learn for a period of time when I returned to it.

This is the first video I've watched from you and 1) I've subscribed cuz you're hilarious 2) clicked on the video with very low expectations, thinking this was gonna be one of those clickbaity language learning videos, and instead got a whole new perspective on language learning (a very exciting one I might add) Very cool video!

I keep that idea in mind if I get tired (or overheated) by french. I would like to spend some time in russian for example but right now I'm still mostly interested in french nice video :)

That's why I enjoy Japanese so much. It's still interesting even after years and years, because you'll come across Kanji, compounds, a dialects/accents or even new ways of saying/writing something that you didn't know before. Some people may not like that concept but the visual aesthetic of Kanji, especially the pictographic ones make me feel like the language is literally moving on the page, basically I'm reading pictures. Enjoy your explorations into languages! (I dabble a lot with other languages as well, but Japanese is the anchor, the others are islands I frequent)

Kinda interesting method! I reached about b2 in portuguese, and now I have this temptation to start a new language. but I want to reach c1 first exactly for the reason you said - I want to watch series and read novels in portuguese to have that language at a really comfortable level to be then taking it in as I go, when I switch to new language… that said, the temptation is real!!

One thing I'm going to do, once I get my proficiency up a bit (a lot... 😂😂) in Thai, is to actually try to study Japanese, Korean or Chinese IN Thai. That will help we with both maintaining my Thai, as well as getting my 'curiosity' up for learning in general. Som svensk så är det inte alltid lätt att hitta studiematerial på svenska för vissa språk, så engelska är ju vårt 'go to' när det kommer till läroböcker. Jag studerar thailändska genom att (näst intill) enbart läsa engelskspråkiga källor, och det förstärker ju min engelska hela tiden, så detsamma borde fungera från thai till ett annat språk. En mycket intressant video, som alltid! Lycka till på din språkresa!

If you're taking suggestions, I vote for a language like Korean, Japanese, or Chinese. Mostly because I'm partial to them, since they're languages I've studied, but also because (in the case of Chinese/Japanese) you can see how apps deal with teaching characters, and (in the case of Japanese/Korean) you can see how apps deal with a very different grammatical and honorifics system than English. This also applies to Russian, I suppose, but I'd be interested to hear about your experiences learning (/dabbling in) a language with a very different script from English and how it compares.

Interesting argument! I actually have studied something close to ten languages overall this year, and I've shifted focus along with my curiosity. I've mostly used Memrise, and it seems the approach may have brought me quite far in terms of passive knowledge of words and expressions in these languages. I now however feel a pressing need to engage in real life situations and conversation in order to take things to the next level.

Language stacking is king. I have been learning a third language, Korean, in my second language, German and I do my best to still get a lot of input in German. For me, it's once I hit b1, that I start going all in. I'm not excited by the very beginning of learning because I hate not being able to form sentences; it makes it a lot harder for me to remember anything, so for me it's about powering through and building up momentum. But then somewhere in B2 I lose the thread a little bit and struggle to make that final jump. I think at that point, you should just spend a lot of time immersed in the language (3 months, for example, is a typical American study abroad program). As I live in an English speaking place, I often say to myself, "how am I supposed to learn German with all of these people speaking English to me?!?" 😂