The apple is red It's Johns Apple I give John the Apple we give him the apple he gives it to john she gives it to him is the apple red? the apples are red i have eaten the apple i must give it to him i want to give it to her im going to know tomorrow i cant eat the apple

My thoughts as a 5-7 language speaker. (5 - 7 because there are 5 languages I speak decently, can watch non-subtitled movies in and have been tested in and the other 2 are “If yo7 dropped me in the country tomorrow, I probably wouldn’t die of starvation for several months.) 1. Functionally fluency can be achieved really quickly if you put in the time. I achieved functional fluency in about 4 months living in Japan. For me functional fluency is the ability to respond to all daily life situations and questions fluently and with near 100% accuracy on meaning, and understanding, and high accuracy for grammar and pronunciation. What you can’t do is have the sort of conversation you have with friends where you kind of talk about nothing, you may not understand humor well, and you won’t have much luck with jargon in fields like economics or medicine. 2. Totally agree that a native speaker is not always the best teacher. Especially if that native speaker hasn’t learned your language. For example, having learned Japanese, which has no articles, I understand why Japanese people mix up “a” and “the”. 3. Also agree with set phrases. 4 or 12 sentences isn’t enough for me. But with basic structures and substitution you speak more fluently. For example, if you memorise “Where is the ...” and just substitute in different places, you are much faster than if you make the sentence from scratch and you are less likely to make a mistake. 4. Not a big fan if that direct translation method you got from Assimil. I can see how it works, but I have also seen language students not be able reproduce that process going out of their native language. 5. I don’t know how universally that 9 or 12 sentence model can be applied. For example, in the 12 sentence method, the only gendered noun is apple, which is feminine. Basing your learning off that, you might think that “la” in Spanish is the only way to translate English “the”. And then there are languages with a neutral gender. And more verb conjugations. And lots of languages where things happen that we don’t even think about in English. 6. The 4 sentence method seems like a good idea for Pidgin, but you have to realize you man spend he majority of your time sounding strange as hell not conjugating verbs. Just a few thoughts as someone who has dabbled and worked in languages for a minute.

Thank you Tim for your teachings and sharing, amazing work (Queensland, Australia)

The sentence list is missing use of adjectives. Some languages put the adjective before the noun and some put it after. There should be a sentence like "The red apple is mine"

Here is a guy who can speak multiple languages to a functionally-fluent level and is sharing his approach FOR FREE online. How can anybody in the comments be unhappy with that? Not enough people in the English-speaking world have the desire to learn languages, partially (in my opinion) because of how it is taught in schools. If Tim Ferriss can get even one person to be more interested in learning a language, how can that possibly be a bad thing? He's not telling people this is the only way to learn a language - and if you want to be a translator at the UN, you probably have to go about it a bit more thoroughly - but if you're just trying to chat to native people while on holiday, this is a far more accessible way than trying to leaf through old textbooks or other such heavy material.

Love it Tim!!! I will try. Great technique to be able to communicate quickly instead and keep progressing from there

Wow, this was awesome info! Def going to be implementing these tactics in my language acquisition!😊 Thank you.

Personally, the best strategy that has served me well in learning foreign languages has been having an intimate understanding of English grammar concepts, and slowly branching into Spanish and Latin grammar concepts. Even though other languages may not share the same grammar concepts, the very act of practicing other languages stretches my brainpower to understand completely foreign grammar concepts.

I know Arabic, which only has 3 verb tenses and this doesn’t apply to that language. But some of these tricks do work in some instances. I’m studying Spanish now. I learned from a native speaker on top of self teaching. My recommendation is to train your ears as much as possible, drill often: translating the studied language to English, get a visual dictionary or use Flashcards with graphics rather than words/literal translations. It took me 3 years to master Arabic. I knew I had it when I started to think in the language when in conversation.

Many of you linguists spend too much time discrediting this young man..please post your brilliant techniques. I am very interested in your method.

I think the list of sentences he gave was useful, but the fact is what really counts is massive exposure to the language. Note that he went to Argentina to learn Spanish and Japan for Japanese (100% exposure) and intensive 101 Chinese classes to learn Chinese (intensive exposure). If you go and live in a foreign country or take intensive language classes of course you will make significant progress. But although the strategies given for deconstructing the grammar of a foreign language touched on here are useful, they will not magically unlock the language. They are just a toe in the door--not even a foot.

Not a bad method to jump-start your language learning and immediately spot the major grammatical differences between English and your target language. If you want to learn to speak and pronounce any language well, you should also take some time to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and some basics of phonology. Good luck everyone!

Japanese structure is similar to how Yoda talks.

flesh cards lol. That was a great comic relief after all of the info he gave - great and encouraging presentation!

The grammatical analysis won't work with languages that utilize different verbal tenses to communicate propositional phrases, e.g. I want/love/must _______. Generally speaking though, this will be useful for languages more closely related to English.

A very useful video.

Vielen Dank! 🙌✈

fantastic useful video

Danke dir, das ist sehr hilfreich!

Michel Thomas, Duo Lingo and what was the flashcards Tim recommended?

The only sentence you really need is, "I want to give it to her."

He's smart, personable, speaks well, and has some good ideas -- that, unfortunately, aren't going to work for everyone. I have studied Spanish for 50 years, the "traditional" way -- classroom combined with some time in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Spain. I test "near native" on the Department of Defense Spanish language test. Curious what his rating would be. My other experience was learning Russian for 8 hours a day at the National Cryptologic School. At the end of the year my certificate said I had completed basic and intermediate Russian. A lot of time but totally enjoyable. So, different methods will get you where you want (or need) to go. You need to find the one that works best for you. Now I just need to stop being so lazy and get going on some others - French, German, and Italian.

Lol aren't we all experts here - talk about taking a negative attitude- its either all or nothing! This is about getting a start - having lived in Thailand I notice many westerners cannot speak more than 3 words of Thai. This input would at least enable them to make a start and yet all the experts here poo poo this help - simply leave to go back to class that many don't have the time to attend or maybe want to attend and let them take this on board and at least make a start on assimilating.

Brilliant ✅

Can you send references you mentioned as I could not catch them in your video. Thanks.

Overall, I am super skeptical of this, but I will definitely try his approach for pronunciation; never thought of it before.

Hallo where are the phrases? (in video 12:05) what is the website?

The word have in a sentence like, "I have eaten", isn't a verb. It's what's called a perfect aspect, making "I have eaten" present perfect.

Gracias @Máté

I would like to know how he approaches to writing and reading in languages like Chinese and Japanese. Those ideograms have a massive variety of sound and meaning that get beguinners like me very confused.

kongratuleischons Máté, yor inglisch iz weri gut! I lernt a lut.

How in the world could he have problems with Spanish but no real problems with Russian or Chinese??? I'm conversant (although not fluent) in Russian, Spanish, French, and know a smattering of several other languages. Spanish is by far the EASIEST to learn, whereas in Russian you have to learn all the cases and their endings. I have a Russian instruction book and there are over 800 grammar rules! French has some difficulty but not a lot. So, for him to say Spanish was his nemesis has me shaking my head in amazement.

Dear Tim Ferriss, what are some good resources for the language of mandarin, if I might ask?

What sources he recommended?

How long per day did you study to learn a language?

13:00 the pronunciation of 'çocuk' (child) is tʃoˈdʒuk

I've just started learning German. This seems like a good approach

This was so helpful I can’t thank you enough ❤❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊

Can anyone help me find those flash cards he is talking about? At least type out the name for me?

NO WAY TIM READ ONE PIECE!?!?!?!?

he should write a book on learning languages.

I am struggling to understand why there's no sentences with a past perfect or past imperfect tense. Or a true future (several years down the line) instead of close future (tomorrow).

Q: What about comprehension? ie What happens when the other person speaks? Isn't vocabulary and idioms a bigger hurdle than basic grammar?

I'm really fascinated with all these polyglots on KZfaq, and I've watched a lot of these types of videos. The problem is that every time I come across one that claims he's learned my language in three months or so, his proficiency is mediocre at best. All the other languages he speaks sound great to me, of course, but I wonder if that is not simply because I can't possibly make a qualified judgment since I don't understand those languages. In my experience, learning a foreign language to a decent level of proficiency, where your vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and fluency are good, where you can understand subtleties of different kinds depending on the context and person you talk to, is a rather lengthy affair, certainly not three or six months. Are there any videos of Tim speaking Japanese? I actually have a way of telling how good he is.

Hola porfa le pueden poner subtitulado en español gracias

Just a thought about learning chinese. How hard is it to learn how to write, compared to speak the language?

Tim Ferriss: If you learn to conjugate those 4 verbs you can use any verb in the language Me, trying to learn Finnish: ...I....don't think so :(

2:15 i've used this naturally with learning english but i was afraid if i do it too many times i will mix words and stuff.. xD i might start to use it more often :D

It is not the German verb 'haben' (to have) that is used as an auxiliary with 'gehen' (to go) to form compound past tenses but rather the verb 'sein' (to be).

Does this Work w Japanese?

That’s cool, I was also an exchange student in Japan :) peace

Amazing! His Chinese pronunciation is on point, even better than some native speakers

Interesting

I don't know why ppl have so much negativities in them,are they trying to share their frustration by commenting?? OK,it was also a negative comment I guess...😅can't help

is this in a book?

11 months Fluent RIGHT 😂😂😂😂😂!!!!!!!!

"What about pronunciation? People want to know!!" -- "Ehh well, you go over your mistakes and drill the hell out of them" lol That's sum revolutionary approach right there. Thanks for the tip.

I would only stick to romance languages with this method.

At 13:54 he says he scored above an 85% on Turkish, but at the same time scratches his ear. Clear sign of doubt right there.

This ameteurish approach would get crushed by any highly inflectional language with a complex case system (i.e. Polish, Finnish, Hungarian etc.)

LOL! What Direct objects, Indirect objects?? I answered my English exam with pure instincts and got a 82% grade(percentage from correct and wrong; not based on 70%).

ありがと りんご 😆🍎

4:52

What he says would not work with a language such as Navajo. For example, "give John the apple" = Jáan baa bilasáana łaʼ níʼááh (literally, John to-him apple some you-give-a-single-roundish-bulky-object-to-him/her). So there are many words for "give": yíʼááh (he gives him a single roundish object such as an apple), yíjááh (he gives him a large number of small objects such as seeds), yíyeeh (he gives him a burden, pack, or load such as a saddle), yíłjooł (he gives him noncompact matter such as hay or wool), yíkaah (he gives him something in an open container such as a glass of milk), yílé (he gives him a single slender flexible object such as a rope), yínííł (he gives him several objects such as several apples), yíłteeh (he gives him a single animate object such as a dog), yítįįh (he gives him a single slender stiff object such as a pencil), yítłeeh (he gives him mushy matter such as mud), yíłtsóós (he gives him a single flat flexible object such as a book). Then, if it's intransitive, it requires different verbs. If passive, still other verbs. And the different tenses and aspects can require big changes: daniijááh (we 3-or-more give the seeds to him), daniijaaʼ (we 3-or-more gave the seeds to him), dadiijih (we 3-or-more will give the seeds to him). Similar with to eat: alghał (he is eating meat); ayą́ (he is eating, intransitive); yiyą́ (he is eating it, such as an apple); yidlą́ (he is ingesting liquid); yiʼaał (he's eating something hard); yildeeł (he's eating plural things); yilkeed (he's eating something chunky); yiłchozh (he's eating something leafy, such as salad or greens); yiłtsʼééh (he's eating something mushy, such as oatmeal). For those who have studied Russian or Polish, you know about verbal aspect. Russian and Polish are considered very difficult especially because of verbal aspects. For every English verb, there are at least 2 Russian/Polish verbs (imperfective aspect and perfective aspect). Navajo has a whole slew of verbal aspects, such as imperfective, perfective, usitative, iterative, progressive, optative, momentaneous, continuative, durative, conclusive, repetitive, semelfactive, distributive, diversative, conative, transitional, and cursive. And syntax is not free, but rather fixed, and every noun belongs to a specific class based on 8 degrees of animacy; from human adults to abstract ideas. The most animate thing must always precede a lesser animate thing in a sentence, regardless of which one is subject and which is object. If a person touches a bird, the person (most animate) has to come first, and the less animate bird comes after. If a bird touches a person, the person STILL must come first, and the bird must STILL come second. So you get "PERSON BIRD TOUCHES", which can mean either "the person touches the bird" or "the bird touches the person." To distinguish the meanings, there are special conjugations used that indicate whether the object precedes or follows. And if I write out the Lord's Prayer in Navajo, which I can easily do, I don't think you could extrapolate much of anything meaningful from it.

👍

I want to give it to her. Is a very useful one. :)

I don't doubt he's fluent but I take issue with the fact that he became fluent while living in countries of those languages. and his model isn't based off of that. Immersion is the key to fluency, duh!!!! I took college-level Spanish for 3 years and even used Rosetta Stone for a couple months, and could not even have a simple conversation until I lived in Niacaragua and was immersed daily, spoke with locaks, etc. Having the grammatical background, I was fluent within 2 months. For those who say it should take years to be fluent, consider that children learn to speak within a year or so, and that's mostly just due to physical limitations of forming sounds. They communicate long before that. So an adult who understands the concept of language in general should be able to learn make new sounds and simple vocabulary like he did when immersed. However I don't think people who have had the immersion experience are truly capable of providing quick tips and tricks for those who are learning without immersion. It's just a totally different experience and route for your brain. A person who is not in an area where the language is spoken can learn the grammar in a short period, but without conversation and hearing nuances in the language, fluency won't happen so quickly.

ok

Molto bene, hen hao, very good

i swear i feel like i cracked a secret code or something

Those people in the crowd cant even see what he is pointing at lol

I like how his talk is about grammar and just completely avoids german the entire talk lol yes, learning the bare bones of a language can make people "understand" you (your general idea). However, you will sound weird to them and they will always say that you don't actually know the language but just know a set number of phrases and how to interchange them. trust me, i learned german this way and had to re-learn a lot.

speaking, grammar, & pronunciation are hardly ever the problem for me, but listening comprehension is all together another issue & Ferris never mentions it here. Also social/BICS level of language skills is quite different from CALP/Academic/Professional level.

i want to connect with you

Master Yoda was Japanese ?? !!!

Yet, he admits that he bombed out trying to learn Russian this way.

Lol haber is used in Spanish when saying things like "I have done this, that, etc." Tener is not the right word to use. That's a very odd thing to forget too.

He's sure packin'

does he actually speak any of these languages? i would like to hear some actual conversation instead of some cherry-picked theory.

I learnt Spanish for visiting Colombia with just 3 sentences: No thank you, I can't carry that for you even if you do pay me $1000.. Hey I said no and that's really hurting my arse. Please stop hitting with that stick Mr Policeman.

because i want to learn more

he should get a T-shirt. Those sleeves keep rolling down

I have eaten is 'he comido' in Spanish. The auxiliary verb here is 'haber' which also means 'to have' but is a totally different verb to 'tener'... Learn all the conjugations of 'Tener' and you still won't be able to say 'I have eaten an apple' in Spanish!

Having an approach is excellent but it's also clear he doesn't know the names of the parts of speech, and he also hasn't mentioned the fact that the sentences he has chosen will not help with some things such as verb conjugation or plural forms or gender. In German for example, you have to learn the gender and plural form of every noun. For Spanish you have to get to serious grips with gender, verbs and tenses. 6:09 he knows he's made a mistake. The verb "to have" (possess) in Spanish is indeed "tener" but the auxiliary verb "to have" (to have done, to have written, to have played) is "haber". I have to say this comes across as not very impressive, it feels like maybe there is something there but it's not fleshed out. That guy from Glossika though, he's the real deal as far as I can tell.

Good luck trying to learn Polish based on nine sentences.

Um....this just made me more confused! learning better by following the basics

Let us know how you get on with Hungarian dude!

I agree that Michel Thomas was a great teacher and that his courses are beautiful. But they are mere ice-breakers. It's one hell of a long road from Michel Thomas to fluency. It takes time, as it should. Deal with it.

Well the best way is to live in the country where that language is spoke, because you are forced to speak the language and you can hear that every day like you had done.

lets try this trick if it was really is

I'll use number 10 to spread my love all oevr the world hahahahahahaah

What about pragmatics? 食べる必要がある。Sounds just as weird as the literal English translation. You can make yourself understood but you'll be sounding like an idiot. But maybe that's an interesting approach to quick-start your language learning and then go further from that, idk. I'm very skeptical about this technique.

The trick to learning anything. Is if you want to learn. If you don’t want to learn a subject. You can spend your life learning it and you will never learn it.

This ain't gonna work with finnish, that's for sure. Our language needs very different approach. Too complex.

9:30 Japanese

Good luck learning Japanese...no one speaks like your examples and doesn't make any sense. It's basically pidgin to my ears.

Just curious - do any serious language learners find what he is saying useful? Thanks.

Too many mistakes to count. This guy either does not know what he’s talking about or he’s simplifying what he says to the point that it becomes wrong. Bring on the next “fast language” scam.

hi tim

A cure for anyone with sleeping issues 😴😴😴 👍🏼