Big thanks to Lingopie for sponsoring this video - discover the joy of language learning at Lingopie! 7-day free trial + 70% off the Lifetime Membership: learn.lingopie.com/onewordatatime

I appreciate your heart for the data with these experiments, but the thing about the 20x exposure rule is that it's not just any exposure that works - rather the suggestion is that after 20 exposures to a word where you understand the message and function of the word, you'll have fairly safely acquired it. That's why libraries like Dreaming Spanish, Comprehensible Japanese, and Comprehensible Input Korean work for people without study, but jumping into cartoons, podcasts, and dramas without study generally gives quite poor/slow results. The CI channels get you those dozens of exposures while providing you with unambiguous visual context to understand the words, even as a total beginner, while cartoons and dramas assume you already know the language and that they can use the words to provide context to the story, not the other way around.

This channel has an original, useful approach, and the quality is excellent. Thank you for your work!

I started learning German about 5 months back. I use Anki for vocab, 20 new words a day and I use German Netflix shows for input. I spend a total of about 2 hours everyday but I am quite astonished at the comprehension abilities I now have. Anki + immersion is such a powerful strategy

I'm impressed you were able to stick to a serious 100 day challenge for the channel studying a language that seems arbitrary to you (maybe I'm wrong on that). One huge problem with language learning channels is that it doesn't include any kind of objective testing. Just using yourself as a test subject might not be enough for a real academic study but it's way ahead of anything else I'm seeing on KZfaq. I really appreciate your hard work and look forward to the next video.

GREAT video :) I really appreciate this new route you're exploring of testing your own previous analysis with new-for-you languages. Very inspiring and insightful!

Congrats on getting your first sponsor! Love your videos, they have a great mix of using data to understand language learning, while understanding the limitations of the results and recognizing that there's a ton of methods that can be useful. Awesome work!

One of the most underrated language learning channels out there. You deserve 1 million subs instead of those “KZfaq polyglots”.

I try to force this type of exposure by making use of the "10 questions" template by Med School Insiders. So you can make 1-10 question cards, which all ultimately lead to the same answer. When I come across a word, I copy the sentence, and find 1-9 more sentences that I fully grasp. So it becomes forced comprehensible input, albeit in a less organic setting.

I'd definitely recommend polishpod's 2 hour input vid, it massively improved my polish, I spent a few weeks watching and rewatching all of the "situations" until I could mostly understand all of them

In a near future i intend to do something like that with the korean language. But i still trying improve my english before i start to really learn korean. Almost all my engilsh abilities come from the immersion and i want to try in other language, my native language is portuguese

Now this is an experiment/analysis. Not like some smarta$$ KZfaqrs that just count Duolingo lessons and make snarky comments.

It's an honor that you are studying my mother tongue. You did an amazing job! Hope you won't quit. I love this channel. Keep going!

There is this guy called Mikel on KZfaq (Mikel Hyperpolyglot) and he makes videos where he says that you can learn 100 or even 500 words a day instead of 10-30 words. He says he uses associations to memorize the words and he reviews the words he memorized by listening and reading. Memorizing by associations is basically taking a word and its meaning in English/NL and using mental images to make them stick in your brain. He says that memorizing by associations is much more effective than SRS like Anki. And that’s for understanding the language. He has separate exercises for practicing speaking the language. What do you think?

Great video, I can definitely see this channel getting very big. I love the no nonsense and evidence based content. Also your videos have insipired me to try this same challenge and see how many words I can pick up for Spanish

This is an incredible video. It deserves a lot of views

Just commenting for the algorithm, this is brilliant stuff

So much detail on how you study. I like it!!! 🙏🏼

I like your nerdy approach to language learning. It would be interesting to see if you make a larger version of this project.

The amount of work you put into these videos is huge. Super interesting, do you think you could create a guide for learning German, or any language after all you’ve learned. There are so many “comprehensive guides” out there but they all just seem to shill their own products and from the person you seem to be from your videos I don’t feel you would do this. Found your channel recently and I’m learning German (similarly for my German partner). Great content

i was going to watch a video of you, forgot your channel name but opened youtube anyways, you proceeded to appear as the first video of my fyp

As someone who learning a language with not to much resources, thank you for these videos. You are helping me think of creative ways to achieve results!

considering you were doing ~16 mins/day that's pretty impressive, thanks for sharing your experiment!

"A feel for the music of the Polish language." That's a really nice way to say "szczść" xD

Very interesting channel for people who are in language learning, especially if their target language is English. Thank you for your work.

I just love your approach and on the same page for language learning philosophy. Just keep going and your channel will get big, I believe in it. Well, you already have more than five thousand people watching you. That's a lot of people!

hi, i'm absolutely in LOVE with your channel ! You seem like such a good man, and I love your experimental approach to language learning ! keep doing what you're doing !

Interesting video. I just wanted to comment on what you said at the end about picking in advance tomorrow's input. From personal experience it's super helpful as you avoid all the distractions of scrolling in platforms like KZfaq and you cut straight to the videos you want to watch. A separate watchlist dedicated to one target language helps even more towards that direction👌

Please consider a Lingq video. Sentence by sentence with audio and translations.

This is such an interesting way to track progress. I love it great work and very well explained.

i would love to see you analyses the effectiveness of rewatching shows or movies, could it be better to watch the same movie 20 times or watch 20 unique movies?

Congrats on the sponsorship! That's huge news, and definitely deserved! On an unrelated note, I've heard you mention the 20x rule before. Could you share the article that comes from? I'm curious if it's 20 on average or just >20 to learn a new word.

do this again with the extra controls! Its fascinating

Interessantes Video👍 Schön sachlich gehalten und gut vorgetragen👏

You have found an interesting perspective. Good luck to you. One question: was this comparing episodes watched or tume spent watching?

Gratulacje! :)

Sorry English is not my first language, but is my understanding correct? 1. You watched videos 2. Then you put the words from the video in your anki What is your anki settings for this? How much time did you spend daily in watching videos and inputting words in your anki?

Astounding video! The implications of this are profound and go beyond just language learning, embracing other types of learning. KZfaqrs in other “learning” spaces should embrace this data-driven approach to content. I’d be curious if skill acquisition (like in music) follows the same principles.

I appreciate you trying to get some exposure to Polish🤗 As a native I can confirm it's very difficult language with a lot of conjugations, cases etc. And for some people even the pronunciation may be tricky, so it's normal that it sounds like gibberish at first if you were never exposed to slavic languages before 😅 If you plan to continue with Polish I hope it goes smoothly for you ^^ I would love to hear you speak more Polish someday 😊

I'm sorry if I missed this in the video but approximately how much time did you spend per day watching videos and using anki?

Thanks!

I recommend a channel for Polish. It is called Think in Polish and she does comprehensible input videos in Polish. I have been using it and find it easier to get started with the language than the Easy Polish videos. Easy Polish is also good though, it’s just that in the beginning, comprehensible input based content works better for me

Very interesting, I've started watching a German tv show to help with my German because of your videos, and am doing Anki consistently. I wonder how this would work with Arabic/Hebrew/Aramaic/etc., where it can be harder for non-natives to understand new words because of the triconsonantal roots.

This is a very nice video (unlike the Sponge Bob one)! You actually did the experiment and it was interesting to follow. Congrats on the success🎉 I'd like to note that you made your input comprehensible by: 1) Studying words 2) Having English subtitles Simply watching Sponge Bob in Polish most likely wouldn't work. I watched Easy German and it also helped me

Can we have a step by step on your anki settings?

I am against using ANKI or any kind of flashcards. There are many disadvantages with flashcards: 1. They are time-consuming. It may take a long time just to write them. Then you have to read and keep repeating until you get the answers correctly. That can also take a long time. 2. They are boring, tedious, you may lose motivation. 3. They take the words out of context. It is much harder to memorize and understand them. Flashcards are completely inefficient compared to just reading. 4. The fact that you can answer all flashcards correctly doesn't mean you have learned the subject. 5. Flashcards ignore the difference between active and passive memory. Active memory is the vocabulary for output (speaking and writing). Passive memory is the vocabulary for input (reading and listening). Passive memory is much larger than active memory. You need a much larger vocabulary to understand what native speakers are saying or writing. But when you yourself want to speak or write, you don't need a large vocabulary. Even with a very small vocabulary you will be able to say whatever you want. Your sentences will be very simple and sound childish but most native speakers will probably understand what you are saying. But flashcards ignore such distinction, putting everything in your active memory, which is completely unnecessary and inefficient. Just reading a book is much more efficient. In the same time you create and read flashcards you could just read a book. In one hour you can read several pages of a book. In the same hour how many flashcards can you write (and read)? Flashcards are much more time-consuming than just reading. If you are learning a foreign language you should read as much as possible. Reading is the best way to acquire vocabulary. You consult the dictionary for the words necessary to understand the text. Reading is much more fun, entertaining, engaging and pleasant than using flashcards. By reading you always see the words in context. I have been studying Swedish for 3 years now mostly by translating song lyrics. I have translated more than 500 songs. I listen to the songs while reading the lyrics, I get vocabulary and pronunciation at the same time. It is a lot of fun and pleasant, I never get bored. I don't worry about memorization, I only care about understanding the lyrics. In the beginning I was barely translating one song in one hour. Now I can translate more than 8 songs in one hour. And I never study more than one hour per day.

Sorry if I have already commented this (I truly can't remember if I did so), could you add furigana on the Japanese word at the end of the video? Great videos! I like your data based approach.

Have you tried mnemonic associations? I’m crap at making them, but often times if I make a good visual association I can remember that word even if I only see it once or twice. Memorising cards just by Anki is good for the first 1000, but I find it harder to memorise words unless I’m seeing them very often

Interesting. Where did you get the "20 times = knowing the word" from? I remember Nation mentioning 12 exposures.

Given the power of spaced repetition and the ‘goal’ of 20 exposures one wonders if it would be better to systematically watch the same programmes more than once - a cycle of three to five videos over a fortnight in which you aim to successfully acquire at least 90% of all 0f the words in the source material before moving on - just like reading the same short story several times.

If you’re gonna do a follow up it would be interesting to test your own actual repetition requirement. Clearly 20x wasn’t quite enough but would 30x get you there? What about 40. Seems like it would be straight forward to do separate tests for different ranges. My gut feeling is that for all but the simplest words raw repetition probably gets you 80% of the way there and the other 20% comes from long term repetition where having to recall the word from farther and farther back in your memory is what really solidifies that neural pathway.

Great video

awesome! Are you gonna keep learning polish?

I wonder if the number of times you need to see a word increases depending on the alphabet/script that it uses.

Can you put english subtitles in your videos? This would help the people like me that don't have the english as the first language. Great video

Why do you put individual words on vocab cards instead of sentences? I originally put words, but it became really problematic because usually there is no one to one translation. For example "to try" in english might mean "probieren" or "versuchen" in German depending on context.

I suck at learning by immersing, and flash cards work great for me. (I also studied grammar and copied all sentences from an episode of a tv show, and rewatched that episode, pausing to comprehend and soak in.) No idea what works for others

A very interesting video again, as always. Give yourself some credit insofar as the results would've been much higher if you were learning another Germanic language (I am assuming you have no previous Slavic languages under your belt).

Can someone give me the skinny of the findings?

I'd love it if your experiments could be carried out by a team of researchers with proper randomizations and controls. Alas, there are only so many language learners as analytic and method-loyal as you (and I, for that matter).

Could you share your Anki deck? I'm having a hard time finding a good one for Polish.

the subtitles just give up at 6:20

I think you should do an experiment like this, but use only one thing. It could be a video, an episode, a movie... You watch the same thing 20 times. In this case, you'll see every single word 20 times guaranteed. And, also, there will be the benefits of repetition of the same content. I think that this experiment will be much more effective.

so you sentence mine from easy polish videos?

You look like the guy from egychology channel

Dang it’s been 100 days already…

Easy LANGUAGES are examples of quintessential clickbait. Nothing easy about them. I wish they'd change the name to the more accurate "Moderate-to-Advanced LANGUAGE". The channel in my TL didn't become comprehensible until I had a good 600 hours of immersion. End rant. Great video. Would love to see you take this further like your wife suggested!

Pozdrowienia😊

You kind of ruined your own experiment by going on vacation or whatever. As far as I’ve read, the 20x ‘rule’ relates to seeing the word in 20 different contexts (which you have to have understood). Simply rewatching or reviewing just shows you the word in the same context which doesn’t necessarily work for a lot of different types of words (sure 1:1 nouns/objects/concepts might be fine) but for words that are quite wide, it’s not gonna work anywhere near as effectively. Hence why Anki is a good supplement to immersion, not the silver bullet.

sentence cards are better than vocab cards because vocab cards can't handle mutiple meanings of the same word reeeeeee

first

The knowledge of a word is not the same as the ability to translate it into your native language.