Why do so many language learners fail to learn to speak. To a large extent it is because they have few opportunities to speak, and when they get those opportunities, they don't understand what is said. Maybe the goal of language instruction should be comprehension, rather than speaking. FREE Language Learning Resources 10 Secrets of Language Learning ⇢ www.thelinguist.com LingQ Grammar Guides ⇢ www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/ My blog ⇢ blog.thelinguist.com/ The LingQ blog ⇢ www.lingq.com/blog/ My Podcast ⇢ soundcloud.com/lingostevepodcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/learn-languages-with-steve-kaufmann/id1437851870 --- Social Media Instagram ⇢ instagram.com/lingosteve_/ TikTok ⇢ www.tiktok.com/@lingosteve Facebook ⇢ facebook.com/lingosteve Twitter ⇢ twitter.com/lingosteve LingQ Discord ⇢ discord.gg/ShPTjyhwTN

My native language is greek, when I'm listening to english I can understand a 100% without even trying. But because I'm not using it for my verbal communication my speaking ability is around 20% compare to my listening and reading level. I think this is perfectly fine and a total success for my use case. We need to be realistic. Now i'm learning japanese. I would be extremely happy if my japanese listening and reading levels will reach my english counterparts. And i would be pretty ok If i can't speak that well because I know I won't use it to communicate verbally as often.

My daughter studies Japanese at school here in Australia and has done it now for 5 years. She always gets an A or A-plus but would struggle to have more than a one minute conversation with a Japanese person. In all the time she has studied the language I think they have spoken to an actual Japanese people on three occasions with the rest of the time just regurgitating words and phrases over and over again to get a pass mark. Of course that is the same in each subject she studies from maths to science so I'm not sure it's a problem specific to language - more that it is specific to a very broken school system that is driven only by marks rather than results.

I was fortunate enough to have been raised in a quadrilingual environment. I have been studying 3 extra languages ( as foreign languages) by myself. Here are my conclusions 1) a language is something you have to study and keep working at til the end. Its a lifestyle. Its not like there is a set amount of information you learn and thats it. I always look up words or some sentences here and there. How do you say this? whats the worst for this? what are the conjugations for this.. How do you build this structure... It just keeps adding up over time. 2)If you want to improve your speaking, you have to speak more. If you want to improve your reading, you have to read more. There isn't a magic pill. The more you do something, the better you get at it. Schools tend to focus kids on their textbooks. Lots of writing and lots of reading, but barely any listening or speaking. I have found that listening and speaking make up 80% of your success. Reading/writing and grammar are things you do as a prep before speaking and listening. 3) Don't confuse "Hours spent" vs " actual work done". In high school i had Spanish but now looking back, my focus was a mere 30%. I was more interested in talking with my friends or drawing than actually learning. The fact that you went to school and had 4 years of German were you pretty much just focused on doing your homework right before class, spent hours looking outside the window waiting for class to be over and answered some textbook questions by cleverly copying the pattern of the example instead of actually trying to learn the concept. Thats why people say I had 5 years of German, but i don't know anything.. I suck at language.

I totally agreed ! Just sharing my lifetime experience here: 1. ENGLISH - I was brought up in an English school hence my English was fairly good already. However, when I went to the UK to study, I realized I could only understand 70% of what my teachers were saying. When time passed and with everyday listening and speaking, I was able to understand 100%. My English fluency is now 95%. 2. Before I went to work in (hotels) in China, I could hardly converse in Mandarin. But with literally hundreds of interactions with people everyday, I managed to learn to listen and speak. After having worked in China in subsequent years, now I have no problem in understanding and conversing in Mandarin. I would say my fluency is now 95%. 3. FRENCH - I learned French in Alliance Francaise for 1.5 years many years back and have reached intermediate level. I quit because intermediate level was mostly grammar and I felt absolutely bored, despite the fact that all classes in Alliance Francaise were taught in French, and NO English. The teaching method was not great at all and now with so many channels in You Tube where one can learn to listen and practice, it is so much more useful. I was lucky to have worked with a few French colleagues in hotels so at least I had the chance to listen to their conversations. But the reality is, without the chance to speak and practice often, I found my French has not improved. Now I listen to many podcasts in You Tube and found my level has improved but of course, still has a long way to go. Having said that, I had been to France a few times and I found myself able to survive as a tourist. CONCLUSION: Listen, listen, speak, speak, practice and practice. THANK YOU,

I believe the main reason we fail in language learning is the unrealistic goals we set on ourselves of being able to speak any language in a short span of time. This is magical thinking. Language learning takes time and motivation. I've managed to learn Spanish, Italian, German and currently working on learning Russian by enjoying the process and not setting rigid, unrealistic time constraints. If the language will take more than a year for me to hold an adequate conversation with a native of that language, then so be it. Through language learning you unlock and open the door to that language's culture, history, people, food, music, poetry. Take your time and most importantly enjoy the process. After Russian, I plan to include Romanian and Turkish to my portfolio.

I would love to see an education system adopt a 'comprehension-first approach' for languages over a period of a few years, so we can compare the results.

I'm studying my fourth language now, and I felt like Steve Kaufmann was speaking directly to me lol 頑張るわ〜！！！

As a Western Canadian, I can confirm that my French instruction was ineffective for me. As soon as I could drop French I did, so I only did the mandatory 4 years. I hated homework, since it invaded my reading time. I think if I could have known then that I could learn to read in French in a relatively short time, it would have been my best subject, but I graduated in 1999 before the internet got good.

Hi Steve, That's totally true! And I'd like to add that teacher’s role is not only to teach the language through drills, grammar rules, and vocabulary but to encourage students and create opportunities which help students to put what they have learned into practice, otherwise, they will forget all that they have learned. Language is basketball, it needs practice and if they did not link what they have learned to the real-world situations of course it fades away! We don't forget to mention that a good teacher is the one who gives the language to learners through both focused mode and diffuse mode. I agree with all that you have said and I attended many English classes and unfortunately noticed teachers don't expose student to English and still use L1 in class more than English. We need to remember practice makes perfect and 80/20 rule explained this. 80% goes on practice and 20% on instructions. Best, Mohanad Khaleel

I started learning Spanish when I was 11 at secondary school, and I more or less just gave it up after taking it at university. Many years later, I've now spent the last 6 months just listening to Spanish songs and audio-visual content in Spanish. If I had known this earlier ( I only discovered this approach after becoming an EFL teacher), I would have been near to fluent/native level in the language by now. Pero ahora, sigo con la esperanza que, algún día, lo voy dominar ( el español) bien. Sin estresarme o compararme con otras personas.

Such a great video. Listened to it twice AND eager to work this into one of my future videos. People NEED this message. Comprehension first, exactly!

I think the same happens with other subjects, for example IT or programming, lots of people spend a long time studying just to get a certification, after they get it, all that knowledge fades in less than a week, sometimes one person get several certifications, that may help him the get the job at first, but after that, they are completely unable to move to the next level, mostly due to the lack of a deeper or true comprehension of the basics, they are unable to produce something new or meaningful. As you said, I do agree that the basics for a good communication in another language is first to have a good comprehension ... if you can read and listen quite well, speaking or writing will come a lot faster and easy once you start practicing it ...

I've tested this theory I started learning Portuguese in 2021 and I'm coming up to almost 965 hours of reading, watching, listening, writing, and speaking. I only have tutors for 30 minutes maybe 3 times a week and more recently since learning Russian and French as well I've only had 1 hr classes every 3 weeks more or less and each time I have those classes my tutor is amazed at my progress and pronunciation and expanding vocabulary. Well I've read two novels on LingQ, O Alquimista, and Harry Potter 1 and a bunch of news articles etc. I don't live in a country where Portuguese, French or Russian is spoken but through KZfaq, Lingq, Disney + I get enough exposure that when I need to speak those few times I'm ready with the vocabulary. It also takes courage in the sense that I pretty much don't care if I say the wrong thing or what because I know I'd get corrected anyways and then I'd learn a new word.

Those who are really keen on succeeding with the language should make a very serious commitment and NEVER NEVER NEVER GIVE UP. It may take 4--5 years but you CAN succeed in at least 80% of the cases by making a pledge to allocate one hour each day to fiddle with the language and NEVER CHEAT by skipping. There are notes to the effect that some 96-995% fail with language learning but then the numbers are same with body building, athletics, swimming, quitting smoking, quitting drugs, becoming sober and weight loss etc. Humans are frail minded and the environment does not help. Too many distractions. Not being stressed about not progressing fast enough also helps a lot. Just have faith that some day in future may be 6 years from now there would be some mastery worth having fun with the language. Pursuit of perfection and being able to speak like the natives ever in the life time is sheer stupidity. You are not likely to succeed with that objective and there is no burden to do that either. A stressed brain simply shuts down making learning anything impossible so it is absolutely necessary to be very light minded about learning and not fret nor anticipate failure. Keeping a positive outlook and being hopeful helps. Never admit that you are NEVER Going to be able to learn Mandarin or Japanese. By saying that often enough you guarantee failure to yourself

Language learning at school is almost always terrible. The situation is similar to what I've experienced in Germany. We mostly learn English, of course, as well as French, Spanish and, in more traditional schools, Latin. Extremely little of what is being taught is actually retained. After 5 years of Latin, most of my understanding comes not from school, but my own input-based acquisition of Spanish, which of course helps with romance languages. It also doesn't help that getting good grades means almost nothing, in fact, it gives you false confidence. I've met lots of Germans who had Spanish at school for years, but struggle terribly to watch an episode of Shark Tank Colombia, because they never came in contact with genuine language material. I wish something would be done for students who want to acquire a language (or, in case of English, have to), but I don't see much coming from the responsible authorities.

Thanks for your very good explanation. I totally agree with you. I enjoy many of your lessons, Steve.

Steve you’re inspiring, really. If it weren’t for you and Moses I would have never taken my language learning as seriously as I do today.

This is why I always had a tough relationship with English while learning it on school! I didn't necessarily hated it but I also didn't really cared about it, mostly because I didn't have anyone to talk to (even both my parents don't know english). It wasn't until I started enjoying reading novels in the language, watching lots of content on KZfaq and even making online friends here and there, that I realised english is actually quite important in my life and started to put more effort into it. Great video!

Great tips, I 100% agree! It's so sad because it's an opportunity for schools to really get it right in this area.

Hi Steve! De tanto assistir a seus vídeos, fico achando que você é meu amigo de long time. Big hug!

Thank you for sharing your great experience and lesson in terms of learning language~!!

Ce sont des constats pleins de bon sens, et de lucidité. Merci à vous de nous les avoir fait partager ! These are observations full of common sense and lucidity. Thank you for sharing them with us!

True indeed Sir Steve, stay healthy Sir!

Same in Israel, I studied Arabic for 5 years in school and next year is my last, and honestly we only work of Grammar and an unusual vocabulary especially in the Newspaper. That's chiefly it, we have a fundamental comprehension on spoken Arabic rather than speaking it fluently. I don't blame the teachers for that. It's just that the Ministry doesn't care whether we are fluent in the languages we learn or not. It's not like that, just like you said, most of the students focus on goals for high Grade and that's correct. I always get high Grades and gets excited than neglect Arabic for few weeks and come back again. I'm tired of this thing. What can I do? I studied Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Persian, Korean and German, and just failed in each of them. My goals for languages is high but I waste my time on Anime or Chinese animation... Basically I don't know a thing. 無駄。

What I initially do is try to gain a good grounding in grammar. Yes I know many people don't like doing that but for me I like logic and to understand patterns. Then I start to consume reading materials, Spanish wikipedia, BBC mundo... I have made many good friends on Hellotalk where we also write and verbally talk.... the only difficult part is listening, since generally spanish is a quickly spoken language (compared to english) and unlike not understanding a word in a piece of text, its not always possible to look up lyrics or captions to hear what was being said........ all that being said however with perseverance, you can notice improvements even in your greatest weakness. In Spanish I can read very well but now im starting to listen better too, as a result of a lot different imput and help from my friends.

Thanks Mr. Steve for the vídeo. Could you make a next video talking us more about how to emphasize comprehension?

i studied french in school as well as on my own for 2 years, but a majority of my learning was in school. every test, every assignment, i got very high scores. its been almost 2 years since i stopped taking french classes and ive forgotten it all. i am now studying korean (on my own) and have been for about a year; my korean is infinitely better than my french ever was. I honestly do think that it's because the main language that i hear is korean and i am interested in the korean content i consume. my plan is to become an english (esl) teacher somewhere and i wanna teach like this. i want the kids i teach to be interested in the language and how they consume, and not worry about making mistakes when speaking, and be able to practice with native speakers because i wish i was taught like that in school. tldr; just watch the video i fully agree with him

I practice a little German after 50 years with US Army in Germany. Comprehension is the most important if you can't comprehend you will have a serious deficit in speaking. Listen, understand and repeat. I appreciate your comments Steve.

Hi Steve we havent seen an updates on your dual language challenge. All great stuff thankyou.

Succinct video as I have come to enjoy daily Steve. 1988 in Brampton ON I was placed into the first Enhanced Learning Class in Peel region. Our Teacher taught us to sing the Japanese National Anthem in Japanese as we studied feudal histories. Not one parent tried to have any of the educational elements removed. I can still sing most of it today, and never forgot her divergence from curriculum in my own Language learning. Arigato Steve San.

Great! Many thanks

I enjoy reading French novels edited for intermediates readers. I certainly don't know french grammar backwards and forwards but I do understand what I read and i feel a great satisfaction from it. Steve, you have helped me so very much on my language'-acquisition journey. Again, thank you.

Great Steve!

To support Steve's school comments: my school started French classes for everyone (grades 4-12) starting with the year after me, so I missed it. But it went so slowly that in my 12th year I joined the top level French class and caught up in weeks, not having studied French before. As an individual learner (and someone slightly older than Steve), I'm more interested in his personal learning methods. In this video he says he has been studying Arabic 3 years and Persion 2, but he is still learning and not "failing". That is inspiring to me, after 4.5 years of Mandarin study. Steve's ideas about setting goals and what "failure" means are also useful. Thanks for another great video!

My experience in Spain: here we begin studying English at 9 years old, and arrive to University at 18 years old, which means about 9 years studying English, and realize that the majority of those years are in our childhood, where we are supposed to have a "better brain" for languages. Well, reality is that competent authorities just certify for us an A2 level for our English, which is objectively true. 9 years of study to reach an A2 level in English!!!!!!!!! And of course, we go to a bar and we don't know how to ask for a coffe (literal)

Very good, always!

amazing steve 👏.

I agree with you if the learning process is enjoyable that makes us keep on doing it.

I’ve been reading a Chinese novel recently and really enjoying it. After seeing your video I’m considering trying to find some kind of Vietnamese content to read even thought that would be a lot harder for me than Chinese.

MasyaAllah Steve. It's crystal clear what I should do now for my children. They have done well in languages in school those languages we read and speak at home. For Arabic, it is something else. There are different goals in school. The school syllabus for Arabic is harder than the ones in the Middle East. Yet, I set the target for my daughter to speak proficiently in 5-10 years. As a result, we expose her to tutors who place great emphasis in speaking and listening. How about school? I have long decided that it is okay if she cannot keep up with the school syllabus. However, her grades do no reflect how well she speaks. She scores very well in her Oral component but that is only a small component of the total score. After listening to you, I must make it my goal for her to achieve comprehension in school. It is hard but achievable than the previous goal the school set up for her. Thank you again!

well, let’s admit it, also oftentimes the language teachers can’t speak the language well... happened to me in my French class. So since I’m a native German speaker about 90% was in German “about” French, with a few small written texts in French and vocabulary lists and no one who actually spoke to us in french. No one learns a language like this, it’s nearly impossible 🤷🏽‍♂️

Hi Steve, I remember when I was in highschool, i was very bad in English, like maybe the last in my class, always get 2/20, because I wasn't interested, didn't knew why is important to know an other language. After a few months, I knew I was going to Florida for my birthday and I was so excited and didn't want to miss a thing so I learned English by myself and in 3 months, 3 hours of training a day, I was able to understand anything, it was insane, my teacher was stunned, I ended up first in the class. All of that because of the interest. Thank you, now I'm learning Spanish because I'm going to move in Barcelona in 4 month, I need to be fluent, already have 10K words in Lingq, great app !

Just started watching - didn't know you were Canadian. Cheers!

Hello, I totally agree with you Teacher.

I feel the same Steve . I grew up in Canada and can’t speak any French besides swear words. With mini stories though , I am now understanding more and more Spanish simply with listening .

Thankyou very much from Vietnam, my native language is Vietnamese and I've been struggling alots learning other languages, thankyou very much for the advices ❤

Learning a language is a hobby more than a skill for me

Obrigado pelas suas comentarios. Eu començe a estudar português no fevereiro deste ano e agora ja posso escrever e escutar algumas coisas sempre que não seja muito rápido. Parabéns! I already speak english, i have been encouraging my family to go with portuguese and we all have got some of it! Next language will be Italian!

Steve, another good video. My question is this: if you consider the amount of known words that a learner knows in a target language to be the best indicator of learner's progress, then should vocabulary tests be used to evaluate the progress of all language learners?

You are the modern Confusious in Sweden, thanks a lot for your teaching.

Gosh if only I knew what you are saying maybe 15 yrs ago..I know a vast amount of french vocabulary, quite a good understanding of the grammar, went to night school and classes for so long, read books, yet was never given an opportunity to actually speak it or hear it..I’m now in my seventies and feel it was a waste of time, though I did enjoy learning..thanks Steve for your use words...

I agree with what you have said, I think that most people who are in charge of schools where students are learning other languages, put a lot of emphasis on how to correct students and test them, and in the end they end up not learning anything. Unfortunately that happens not only in Canada but I think that in every country.

I’ve been studying French for a year and half now and yeah it’s a slower process because in Western Canada, you’re very limited in who you can speak French with.

You just nailed it

You guided me to the best road on language learning. I started with spanish when corona started . Pushed myself on how much I could do everyday . It eventually killed my motivation ( grammar exercices and language apps) and I had to figure out a way to make it enjoyable . Now im doing it for a hobby and replaced spanish on my computer and mobile phone . Thought to myself what is the reason im learning spanish ? Well I want to understand it ( main goal is to read the language without effort ) and talk some basic sentences to the villagers on our vacation house near alicante . Now im taking with me spanish through almost all media sources ( video games , series, newspaper, apps ) . The thought of : ‘ It’s OK to not understand everything at the beginning ‘increased the enjoyment of learning . Through this process without even thinking about it I have increased my vocabulary dramatically. Its all sorts of traps on the Internet how to learn language fast and be fluent for short periode of time . Maybe it works on someone but Don’t push yourself . Make it enjoyable and add it to your daily life . Thank you Steve . My hunger for language learning has never been so good as it is now . Let the fun continue! 🥳

Even I live in Canada but its the opposite i am french and i was learning english in school. I started learning it in grade 3. At first the classes were really bad i was passing but didnt know anything. Then i went to a private school in grade 7 where the level was extremely high and then i failed. I had summer private classes and i was able to learn most of english in 2 months. After that i was always passing english at about 80%. For english as a second language. I think what helped me was that i needed to learn english in order to not be expelled from my school. I was studying very hard for 2 months. I think what really made me succeed was the motivation. I was extremely motivated

Indeed, focussing on comprehension is the quickest way to make a language enjoyable to engage with. To enjoy films, books, and other media in a language, you don't need to speak or write it! Whereas to have conversations you will need to speak or write in addition to reading or listening; and being able to speak or write well requires one to already have listened and read a whole ton more.

Great uncle....keep it up...

The same is true in Scandinavia, while we are mostly fluent or well versed in English that is because of our consumption of it since primary school. We can choose to learn another language in middle and high school, if you pick the French in both schools you would be learning it for a total of 5/6 years, even then most can not speak their chosen language.

Most countries in Europe are not English speaking, but in my experience, people in my age group and younger, almost everyone speaks English fluently. I’m born in the 70s.

Some great wisdom here.

I read that only 10% of French immersion students in Canada who stick it out to graduation achieve proficiency in French.

Here's my comment for you Steve Kauffman. You're my freaking hero.

I couldn't agree more sir...in my country the situatuon is same..in our English learning system we try to teach English during 8 years but just gör pass the test and then the students can't answer any simple question unfortunately..thanks

Really really it's true. Thanks meanwhile.

I loved it!

I’m Canadian and always got 90s on my French work but I can’t speak French to save my life. I remember a lot of random vocabulary but I found they emphasized too much on verbs without giving me any context on how to use it. I can say “ swim” in French but I never learned how to use any of it in a casual conversation. They just kept shoving information that I don’t use in my English let alone in another language. After 6 years of French I’m not fluent at all. I agree we need more comprehension and more material on how to have a conversation versus how many verbs they can throw at us at once.

Here in Russia where I live (I am a USA citizen) all regular schools teach a foreign language. It is required to graduate. I have gone to some classes as a native speaker to engage with the kids. The biggest problem I saw was they were all very very shy. Especially the girls. They were so afraid of making a mistake, and so ashamed if they even thought they did. I have had older people walk up and start speaking fairly good English and sometimes French that they lernt in the Soviet school system. They were very confident. Could it be the age difference? Could it have been something to do with the Soviet education system methods? Could it be just a generational thing? It was very important in the Soviet system to speak publicly. It was drilled into them. That, and there was much more real face to face social interaction when there was no internet. Back then, TV only had lame and repetitive programing, so no one paid much attention to it.

For me the failure is another things when I was young. Now, for me the failure is when I don't try to do something and it does't mater if it is easy or hard or what kind of topic it represent. When I give up and I won't be curious to try something new. My English journal I have started so many time and I have so many ups and downs but still I really believe that I can learn this language. The failure is only when I assume that I can do it something and I give up for start, because I don't want to try. Great topic! The first is believe and the second is being a systematic.

You are so brilliant.

Back when i was in secondary school we were forced to learn Spanish due to our proximity to South and Central America. Im autistic which is a whole can of worms but the difficulty in language processing combined with general disinterest in those classes lead to me failing all but one or two years of those classes. Now as an older person I've revisited language learning and have decided to pursue German not for any of its utility but out of sheer curiosity. I am at only the most basic level but the knowledge I have now has stuck with me better only because I actually care to learn it.

I had a horrible thing happen in my career and basically had to start from scratch in my 30s. Lost motivation for teaching and learning about teaching and for learning the language of the country I live in. Life is weird, after a few years of stagnation, I’ve been tiptoeing into animation, which strangely has given me my creativity back and I’m studying animation in Japanese. This video was encouraging. Cheers.

I have to say that it's exactly the same thing for french people about english at school in Québec. We don't learn the good way... I really learned well my english when i was adult. And i especially improved english while learning chinese. Haha !

Schools are trying to force languages into kids that have no interest. I had no interest in french or sport at school, I hated both then and still do . I speak spanish to about B2 and I'm learning Italian , Portuguese and Icelandic now in my own time ( I am 69 and retired ) . It may have something to do with the fact that I have more time , but you can't force stuff where it's not comfortable, schools should realise that. HORSES FOR COURSES !

An example that perhaps illustrates Steve's point about comprehension and speaking happened when I was a teenager. I had taken French (in Ontario) throughout high school. In the summer before grade 13, (I'm dating myself), I was in a 2 week exchange program between my city and a French speaking one in Quebec. I stayed in the home of a boy around my age as he did at my house in coming to Ontario. We could not understand each other, at all, when we spoke our native languages. So, all the time, I would speak French (although very slowly and with quick access to a dictionary) and he would speak English. Needless to say, our communication was not very complex.

I did 5 years of French in high-school and I could not even understand the slow news in French. However, after using Lingq for only a short time understanding improved a lot. I think there is some learning happening in school, just not useful for daily life.

Steven I want to ask ,you have exit videos for some languages you left . Is it part of some long term memory method . Bored of it . No drive . Could you please shed light on this and enlighten us the benefits and harms of leaving a language for some time

"as long as you're learning, you're not failing"

Of course this is all true but I am trying some methods to speak better. I've started doing a daily journal about things that happen to me or fake conversations that could come up using DeepL and then download the content into lingQ where I can review and practice in French and Spanish. In Louisiana I can find a few people at a local bar that speak some degree of French and there are immigrants from Mexico and Honduras here.

In Hungary, in secondsry school one must learn two foreign languages. One the language, they learned primary school (nowdays english) the second is compulsory (usually german, cause the language teacher shortage). I never have meet someone, who could speak their second language after school. (Sadly many people can't speak any language exept hungaryan)

There is no feedback system in Canadian schools (probably not just Canadian) where the parents may provide their feedback to the teacher. I was horrified when I heard the online French lessons my daughter is receiving from her school. The French teacher sounds completely depressed and unmotivating. No wonder kids do anything but to put this out of their mind as soon as the lesson is over. And the problem is that those teachers keep their places in the system regardless of their performance.

My learning exercises are based on listening and reading and I don't speak so much But my comprehension c1 level

Agree I learn Portuguese pretty well after two years living in Brazil. People in my country didn't learn after 6 years studying. I think is cheaper moving a season to another country than investing in an institute...lol

As high school student in Turkey, I can tell you that we the Turkish take German lessons, at least "mostly". I am at one of the most prestigious high schools of my country which is reputed to teach languages very well and when I asked my German teacher : "What is your mission for the students in German at the end of all four years of high school education?" Would you like the response? A2

It's wonderful that you can speak in persian with just 2 years of study. I admire you.

A lot of people need to pass exams, for example, the HSK exams. They really do have to concentrate on a set school-like syllabus.

Hi Steve, Arab learning Japanese here.. Not sure if you need my moral support but keep at it, Arabic IMO is a bit more difficult than Japanese and Chinese, especially speaking it, there is a british embassy guy on twitter who has done it, you could check him for inspiration if you want. I look forward for the day when i can speak Japanese and hear you speak Arabic.

I'm one of the typical Japanese who can't speak english well. Now i major in second lanaguage acquisition, I have been thinking why we don't speak english well. It's true that we learn foreign laguguage in our school, but time is not enough to acquire language. As he usually says, we need more input like listening while draving or cooking. Then, we come to speak target language little bit, we should use that phrase or construction. If you really wanna hone laguage skill, we can get opportunities to speak, for example, online lesson, talk to myself. I'm still learner of English, Let's keep studying ;)

i m canadian raised and had absolutely no interest in learning french as a kid. just the school system didn't make it fun plus the grading system always made me feel terrible and that i was useless at languages. i was turned off at the concept of learning any other languages for another 20 years. . 20 years later, now im picking up chinese and finding it super fun. 4 years after that taking a stab at japanese and finding that also really fun. self studying the asian languages has been a lot of fun. french in school was anything BUT fun. it was a chore and a useless one that that. i also agree, there's really no need to use french anywhere in canada. i've been to quebec more than enough times and English was more than adequate to get by. if you go to japan or korea, or china.. english is rather useless there (unless maybe the major cities). i found out that the hard way :)

I think the best way to hate any language to study it at school. My sister studied French at school, now she can't speak French but she studies English and she speaks quite well. My friend studied English at school, now she hates English and she studies German, she can speak it very well. I didn't use to like English (I studied it at school and at the University) but I'm too stubborn to give up. I started studying it several years ago and now I can speak it pretty well. I suppose we have too big classes at school for speaking. Our teachers don't have opportunities to give us what they really would like to give. You can't teach speaking if you have 15 - 19 students at class. And for students it's unbearable to study a language for many years and still can't speak it!

Studying helps a lot, but definitely putting what you learn into practice is what makes things really click. As long as you keep on going and you're putting in the work to learn and understand, and you most importantly ENJOY what you're learning then you are most certainly not a failure :)

This makes me think of the common frustrations students have learning Math beyond just Arithmetic. They start getting into Algebra, but rarely see any practical application for what they're learning.

As a Canadian, I completely agree. I have also never met a good french teacher, even when I moved to Quebec. So much focus on conjugation you never actually learn how to communicate. I do wish LingQ had Thai.

I was surprised to discover that quite a few universities on the mainland of Europe teach some of their courses in English. Which, obviously, implies that their students leave school fluent in English.

Hi...nice video

in ireland we have written exams, listening exams and spoken exams for languages. Im not sure if this is normal for all countries...i still cant speak French or Irish though

Let's be honest, schools, and to a large extent, universities, aren't trying to help you learn a language, they're interested in how you perform at memorization. I'd go as far as to say that _most_ subjects are that way, and what they're actually testing is your ability to handle large quantities of information in relatively short periods of time, and to have the capacity to acutally put in the work it takes to be _able_ to handle it. Whether or not you think that's a good thing or not is another question. Maybe that ability/skill is helpful in the workplace, I don't know, it seems like it would be for a lot of jobs.

It's absolutely correct

Growing up in Canada, I became un-interested in learning French when I realized that Quebecois and European/Standard French were different in many ways, and I personally had no interest in learning Quebecois. I now wish I'd have continued with the Standard French for the bigger picture, but as a kid I wasn't that forward-thinking. As an adult I've been learning Spanish, and because it's my choice, I work hard at it. Olajá que les vaya bien.