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Luca: The brain is like a recorder, it records *everything* me: yeah, I think mine is broken

This actually happened to me with English completely by accident. I had been watching movies and playing videogames in English, and one day I just realized I wasn't mentally translating stuff anymore.

For me, thinking in Spanish (my target language) has been occuring as a result of just speaking with people in Spanish. It forces me to think quickly

I’m starting to have more and more dreams in French nowadays, and I’m really excited!

The summary starts at 7:19.

Thanks Luca! Your point about "massive input" is an underrated one in the language learning world. I said almost that exact thing in a video about 6 weeks ago - we tend to think that ~300 hours or something is enough to speak a language, but someone between the age of 2 and 16 will get about 300 hours of input in their native language per MONTH. Also, a lot of us should "dumb it down", watch kids' shows, read short books, listen to kids' audio books etc etc. Thanks for being so well researched Luca, you're the best!

* thinks in Spanish * Duolingo owl: NO! IT'S ALL WRONG! 🔫🦆

When I learned Spanish (living in Argentina), once I reached a point of relative competency, I made a determination to translate every single thought I had into Spanish. After some time Spanish thoughts came directly, without translation.

This massive input thing is huge. It doesn’t take a little or some or a lot or even quite a lot, but rather a MASSIVE amount of exposure in the long run. Obviously, that can be discouraging to think about such a daunting thing, but it happens over years of time, and with consistency and patience, you know, it’ll come.

The reason why I love Luca is because he does summaries at the end of videos.sometimes for me as a language learner, it’s a little bit hard to remember every tips when the video ends because I concentrated too much on the language instead of the content. And the summaries make his videos so well organized. I appreciate what u been doing here.

When I learn languages, I initially translate everything in my head. Over time, however, I get used to new words and forget about their literal meaning. After a while I start to understand a foreign language without translating. I am a Pole. I permanently live in the UK. I know Italian, Spanish, French and German at a medium level. The longer I spend time with these languages, the less I translate it into Polish or English. I think it's a natural process.

Do you think directly in your target language or you translate from your mother tongue? Eager to know your methods and techniques!

I'm a native spanish speaker so my parents inmigrated from Mexico to the u.s in 1940 i was supposed to learn English as a second language, but when they moved from El Paso tx to Los Angeles i was 14 yrs old & happened to moved in the area of montebello Calif. around East los Angeles area we moved to an old house & our neighbors happened to be Italians the Armenti family i have never been good in mathematics , but i picked up English & Italian real quick because the armenti's daughter happened to be my age at first i was very confused because i was picking italian faster than english because both languages come from the same family of languages romance,then as the weeks & months went by started getting confused & i thought, i was going bananas! When the history teacher was asking me what was the year of the declaration of independence i would answer rigth, but i would mix spanish e italian instead of answering only in english "en el ano di mille setecento setanta e sei,fue declarada la independencia de los estados unidos."she would looked at me with a puzzled look & say ; excuse what did you say??? It took me over a year to get used to have 3 language swimming around my brain, but finally started to answer in english, the official language in ln los angeles calif u.s.a.kids in school would make fun of me calling me "Al Pacino from chihuahua , mexico" but when i realized who Al Pacino was & Juliana told me he was a huge Star in hollywood from Italian descendancy i wasn't mad i was very flattered!! It took me quite a while to get acostumed my brain to three languages that i actually can say i was very lucky to have Juliana as my neighbor for over 4 yrs in the long run she became fluent in spanish!! & i became fluent in italian!!

I'm a native English-speaker, and I've learnt French. But when I listen to them speak, I can't help but have to translate in my head what they're saying and then if they speak too fast I can't keep up and can't understand them. It's frustrating. I try to just 'listen', but I can't understand them at all if I do that.

Yes, we do indeed learn a new language subconsciously as well as deliberately. When I listen to podcasts in my target language I find it much easier to think in that language.

Listening and reading everyday in your target language does actually work! I did that for a while with portuguese and after a few days of doing this I ended up thinking in portuguese directly instead of filtering it through my spanish. It's the best way! And also trying to learn new words by context and not by translating. Use the translator only when necessary, but if you want to remember that word, it is best to do by context.

I cant help but be amazed every time i listen to someone speaking english and not beeing forced to translate what they are saying, just understanding. Maybe it would be better if you know defenitions of words in your target language, instead of knowing the defenition of the translation in your native language. (Not a nativ english speaker)

I love thinking of my native language as a companion. What a great way to make it positive. Great video! Great tips! I love your laid back, welcoming, positive vibe!

Awesome video Luca! Translating in your head is almost inevitable in the beginning. The words in your native language are so strong in your mind and will be your obvious “go to”. The more you learn, the stronger the new words will become and the less translation will happen in your mind. Like you said, with lots of exposure and practice, the words will move to your subconscious mind and will start coming out naturally without translation.

I really need this- I can think in my first 4 languages which I’ve been speaking since childhood but not at all in the last 3 which I’ve learnt mostly in a school environment 🤦🏿‍♀️

This is the most sensible approach I've heard regarding language learning.

I've been using the "break down method" I gotta say that it worked a lot such as Luca says. it's pretty important to use your native language like a back-up in order to enhance your own learning method so I'm totally agree with Luca about "massive input" it worked so well cause you're breaking things down at doing it. Thanks Luca your advices are absolutely priceless. Bless you!

You're absolutely right I speak six languages and have a working knowledge in another four What I actually delve into each unique culture associated with the language, and it has worked so far Languages, to me, are intellectual vessels or media of particular, unique cultures

The sound of Luca's voice is very friendly and calm. I think it helps a lot to transmit his message. His speaking voice kind of capture my attention. If I'm to become an youtuber, I'd like to speak like this.

Amazing! Absolutely great advice! You actually describe language learning in the way it's supposed to be viewed as. A journey from your native tongue into a new one. Very few polyglots seem to be as helpful and realistic about language learning as you

I've just discovered your channel and I love it! Im an English teacher, my mother language is Spanish, and actually what you say is 100 per cent true!!!

My target language is Spanish and I dedicate myself doing all these immersion techniques to get hold of my input strategy.. 1. Music and movies 2. Podcasts 3. Listening to native via call, videos etc. 4. Maintaining a journal, where I write my thoughts in Spanish. 5. Reading Easy (Children) Books.

When I had a dream in Italian a little over a month ago I woke up and nearly cried of joy because it was the first time I subconsciously thought in Italian

What I think is awesome, is someone explaining to me, whose native language is Italian, about how to translate Japanese, while explaining it to me in English. It shows more about how well you have learned to speak, understand and translate a language, by using other languages to explain the technicalities of learning other languages. As a native English speaker, I discovered, myself, how to remember words in, say Irish, by memorizing it in Hebrew. And I found that out by accident. I didn't realize at first that I had read the Irish, and automatically went to Hebrew to translate the Irish words. Kinda hard to explain, since I am not fluent in Hebrew (not false modesty, I have never even had a conversation, for the most part, in Hebrew, just studied the heck out of it), but have been learning it a lot longer than any other language, spending more time learning it, than any other.

Everyone's talking about massive input and how it is a great point, and I agree. But I was really amazed by how good your English is! You sound like a native speaker

My first 2 languages are irish and English and since the age of about 5, I’ve been learning them simultaneously. When I’m speaking one of those languages, I can think in the other. It’s just something I’m able to do

You mean, I'm not just hanging in English-speaking KZfaq and sometimes readin' comments for fun, but I do improve my English? Well, next time if someone will ask me what I'm doing after work, I'll say "I'm learning English by using comprehensible input method". Darn, such a great idea, I'm not just a lazy bum anymore!

Thank you. I am a native English speaker and I am currently learning Scottish Gaelic. The techniques are really helping me.

Thank you Luca for this! I've learned lots of Spanish by taking advantage of my native language which is Tagalog. It has lots of similarities to Spanish but I always doubt if I should really be translating. This video cleared some things for me so thank you as always!

That's great! All that is working for me. 6 months since I started this process of learning English, and it has been amazing. I can see myself learning more languages!!! I like it!

You're great Luca. I have been studying english and french for at least many years and I've boosted a good fluency after studying day by day following british youtubers, reading books, surrounding me with the language even thinking for few minutes in that target language. Trying to translate speech from TV, radio, friends etc is definitely helping me. Personally I think to have reached a good fluency level, almost next to the advanced one. The school helped me a lot with grammar first of all but, the passion for learning foreign languages and constancy boosted my learning. Thank you so much, for your pieces of advices.

Very handy advice Luca! I have been living in Italy for more than 3 years now and learning Italian has always been a struggle. However, I have realized that my attitude is the biggest obstalce in my way. Onwards and upwards!

This is great information, Luca, thank you! I've been learning Norwegian for a while now, but I'd like to accelerate my progress!

These Lampariello videos are my comprehensive Input to learn English. Thank you very much. I'll be grateful with anyone that corrects my english errors, thanks to you too.

I wait ur video for long time. And here we go, u give us the new great video. Love u luca

Obviously, thumbs up Luca. No words for your pieces of advice!

One of the best things that I can do for my brain as I get older is learn another language. I am currently learning Spanish (Mexican). I think your channel will help me in my learning process. Thank you.

man, i hope that whatever you are wishing right now comes true, and just want to let you know that i see a wonderful spirit.

Really useful analysis, thanks! I am an improving Spanish speaker. Your point about trying to sound as articulate in your acquired language as you are in your native language stood out to me. I sometimes struggle in conversation because I try to say things in a way that I would normally do in English. It is a really hard habit to break.

Thank you for taking the time to make these videos and providing us with these tips.

Great advice as always, Lucca! I think in the beginning of your language journey, it may almost be required to translate in your head into your native language when the language you're trying to learn is so foreign to you. As a native English speaker, languages like French and Portuguese were much easier to learn without having to translate. With so many cognates and similar words, it was never that vital. I'm currently learning Japanese, however, which makes speaking without translating far more difficult. I've learned to imagine the word I'm speaking. It helps when it's a noun because objects, people, places, etc. are more vivid in your head than a verb which can be more abstract. With verbs, I always associate it with an accompanying noun and from there, I imagine the action taking place whenever I say or hear that verb until I master it. Input, as Lucca mentioned, is also so key, especially for distant languages like Japanese. As for similar languages like Romance languages, I've found that little input is required if you already speak one or two of them. The key in this case is to simply speak immediately. Input is always necessary as you'll need to be able to understand native speakers speaking at a rapid pace with all of their colloquialisms, verbal ticks, and less than clear pronunciation. In terms of retaining and internalizing vocabulary, however, I think input is far more input for languages like Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, etc. than Spanish, French, and Portuguese when you already speak some of those languages.

Luca, I love your language learning tips. I have been studying/learning Spanish for close to 2 years now. I will definitely start using the episodic method when I encounter a new word or sentence. By the way, you speak languages beautifully.

Please do more multilingual videos

I'm not sure what your background is other than language, but you use techniques in your videos that mirror techniques I learned training as an educator. For example, in this video you used one of those techniques: "Tell them what you are going to teach them; teach them; then tell them what you taught them." May sound trite but it is effective. Thanks for the content.

Köszönöm Luca, nagyon hasznos tanácsok, javaslatok. Szép napot!!

Tu inglés es súper claro! Me encanta !

I completely agree and share your views on translation and leveraging it. My students are also scared to translate and have been told it's a bad thing to translate. For me, it feels like my native language is my support and is available to suggest some ideas when I'm missing something in my target language (Spanish). Probably 95% of the time, I'm not thinking in English, I'm just speaking in Spanish until I hit a phrase or a word I'm completely missing and my thoughts have to jump over to my native language to find a synonym or an alternative way to finish the idea. It certainly didn't start out this way (there was A LOT more translation going on at a lower level), but in the advanced stage, translation reduced significantly. Great advice! I'll be sharing this video with my students that are concerned about it. Sometimes hearing the same advice from multiple sources is more influential to start undoing the belief of the 'translation problem'.

A particularly interesting video for me as I use translation to learn a language, and also input.

Noway ! Ho aperto il video senza leggere il nome del canale e quando hai detto che sei italiano mi sono shockato. Hai una pronuncia perfetta complimenti!!

Thank you again. I’m learning Czech. I find your information, always, helpful.

Grazie mille Luca!!🙏🍀

My biggest problem is forgetting the more I learn.

Your video has really helped me with learning French. Thank you Luca! 😊

Awesome tips as always Luca! You're a big inspiration to me and I'll certainly use the lessons I've learned here

As a native Romanian, except Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, I've studied all my languages through English. With Japanese, because is not an Indo-European language, the English meaning often is flat and I try to think only in Japanese. Same in Chinese, because you have to learn Kanji, the meaning of a word is much more rich in nuances. Serbian, Hindi/Urdu, Sanskrit or Bengali, even if use different writing systems I didn't thought that are complicated as Japanese. Japanese seams to be like Asiro-Babylonian language ( Semitic language using Sumerian (non-semitic) having a sign with different readings/meanings) or Hittite Language ( Indo-european using Asiro-babylonian and Sumerian Cuneiform). Japanese is beautiful because is hard

I definitely like your videos, Luca. It's hard to believe that English is not your native language. Thank you very much.

I am fluent in both English and Cantonese. I learned French while I was in school but never used it outside of the classroom. However, the grammar and ideas behind French have helped me with learning Brazilian Portuguese. I can translate simple phrases from Brazilian Portuguese into Cantonese and vice versa. I agree with your idea of massive input - books, music videos, movies and lessons.

3 succinct points with a good summary at the end. This was very insightful. Thank you (:

This is a lot of great advice, I am teaching my self Spanish and Russian, my Spanish friend said I know a lot of Spanish but I need to practice more listening and I am doing just as he said and u, I was learning Russian on and off but now I am really serious, u want to be a polygot it’s so cool to switch tongues

Great videos, not just this one, but all of them. Very insightful comments.....

I was waiting for you video, too much time ago. Thanks for everything you have give me, Lucas. And I hope see your next video soon

I BEEN DOING THIS SUBCONCIOUSLY THANK YOU FOR VALIDATING ME

Thanks for your video Luca, it's incredible uncomfortable for my mind when I try to stop with the transitions, it's because is a impossible work, my use this able for have got advantages and in my opinion it's awesome!

Hi Luca, I was waiting for your new video, as always inspirational and full of enlightening suggestions. It is true that in language learning we are afraid to think and translate from our mother tongue and we think it is a terrible mistake but thanks to your examples, we can use it as a strength.

Very nice..immerse yourself in the language.

Precious suggestions!

When I started learning Japanese, I was glad that I had Latin in school as it too is a SOV language so I had practice thinking like that.

Thank you for this video!

thank you Luca! I love your content, it's really helpful!

Your tips are just incredible and so useful! I liked them a lot!!! Thanks for sharing them! Wish to listen more often))

I really like your videos. Thank you so much for your great tips as they are very useful!

I love your videos, Luca. I wish you would do more of them in Italian, so I could get this excellent content, while practising my Italian :D

This is AMAZING advice! Thanks a lot!

Grazie mille Luca!!!

Man input e really the key, i learning english and this mindset help me a lot, thanks from brazil.

Writing is good because it forces you to produce and think about the technicalities of the language at the same time for example 3 year olds can talk but you wouldn’t want to speak like one after three years of immersion.

Japanese and Russian are so difficult 😅 I’ve learned German and Spanish for 6 years. I think these tips will help me take them to the next level. Thank you for your invaluable advice!

Muy útil... gracias!

Obrigado Luca👍🏽

Hi, Luca! You are right as always. I would like to share my technic to think in a foreign language: I tell my brain that it doesn't have its native language. Forget about it. Which difference is on which language to think? No difference. So, think in a target language if you want to think. You don't have words? Use a dictionary. Do you need grammar? What is the problem? I give you everything you needs. And you are right, Luca, it tries to build very simple sentences, at first. It is hard, but it gets used to it. When it is completely tired and exhausted I let it think in a native language and do things which it likes some time to relax and recover. Then I repeat that again and again. After a while, it gets used to it and a foreign language is not already that one. P.S. I know it sounds a little crazy but it works for me, at least :) My best teachers are Google and KZfaq.

I've just discovered your channel, such great content! I'm subscribed now

Great topic! Native-English (American) speaker here. I took 5 years of Spanish way back in junior and senior high school. But far more interestingly, I took up Mandarin Chinese at age 45, and my wife and I mostly speak Mandarin at home in Austin TX. My high-school Spanish curriculum went to great pains to never use even a single word of English in class. Rosetta Stone Mandarin Chinese does the same. However, my first exposure to Mandarin was through Pimsleur, which is entirely translation-based. Having done both translating and not, I’ve decided that whether you *learn* through translation or not is not super-important. The only thing that matters is how you *practice* the language! For me in Mandarin, my wife sometimes criticizes me, when I stumble for lack of vocabulary, for not just saying the English word instead. Curiously, I usually find that hard to do! My brain is usually so firmly in Mandarin mode, that it’s harder to switch mode and back out the sentence to conjure up the English word! So, in short, it’s all about practicing in the target language, far more so than transition or not within the teaching method, and I’d say ditch your native language ASAP.

Muchas gracias

شكرا جزيلا louca

Welcome back! La traduzione bidirezionale è molto sottovalutata purtroppo ma è utilissima sia da principiante che da specialista. I romani usavano questo metodo per imparare una lingua non latina! Sarebbe interessante un video su come guadagnare o lavorare come poliglotta. Thanks for the video!

Very detailed and relevant information! Thanks for sharing your view on lenguage learning.

number two hit me hard: simplify. don't worry about performance, communication is the key point.

This was the video I watched that made me discover the legend Luca.

Spanish is my second language and now I’m learning Italian. Many words are the same and at least 50% are cognates so I made it a point to learn the “false friends” between Spanish and Italian.

Hi, Luca! In my case it actually depends on the situation, the people I'm talking to, the place, the language that is being spoken and so on. When I feel familiar with the people I'm talking to I tend to think in Portuguese (my mother tongue). It actually happened to me a lot in France, especially when watching movies (that is to say when I was distracted) - although the movies were in French and we were speaking French, I was always tempted to comment in Portuguese, which has happened a few times, naturally, spontaneously and unconsciously. However, when I had no emotional connection with people and was, so to speak, forced to speak French it was clear to my brain that I had to do everything in French (even counting or swearing for instance). So for me, it's rather about the environment, the context, and specifically, the emotional connection. Mike

Gracias.

Estoy aprendiendo Español y va muy fantastico! Mi lengua Madre es Ingles, probalamente, puedes ver eso jaja. Yo quiero aprender mas de Español y esto me ha ayudado. Muchos Gracias!

Inputs in the target language are very important. We're basically learned three skills: reading, listening, and speaking. Speaking can be problematic, but reading and listening tie much more directly with thinking in the language. You read something (a constant habit for me, even while watching movies and TV) and you might not understand every single word that you see, but you understand the meaning that it conveys. In some cases, you recognize the meaning conveyed by component parts of a word you don't know, so you understand what it's telling you without resorting to translating it. For that matter, when I'm asked to translate it into English for a companion, I often find that very difficult to do -- I know what it says, but I don't quite know how to put it into English. That indicates to me that I'm thinking in the language. That is more the case with listening to spoken language. You can't catch all the words, but you can get a feeling for what is being said. If you have to translate everything, then you simply will not be able to keep up. Unfortunately, some words can be very important. In one trattoria the waitress asked if we had already ordered. I did not catch the word "gia" and thought that she asked if we were ready to order, so I answered in the affirmative and she left.

I'm currently studying Italian. Today I overheard two Spanish professors speak to eachother, and amazingly I could understand their conversation so easily.