Why You Can't Understand Sentences (Even Though You Know All the Words)

Рет қаралды 194,976

Күн бұрын

One of the most common problems I hear language learners report is “knowing all of the words in a sentence, but still not being able to understand what the sentence means as a whole”. This video is an in-depth exploration of exactly why this happens, and how to go about fixing it.
If you are a regular viewer of my content, you can probably guess what the solution is: immersion. But, in this video, I go into the actual mechanisms of HOW immersion helps you improve your ability to understand sentences. Hope you find it useful!
LINKS:
Garden-path sentence: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-...
Center embedding: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_...
Pragmatics: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatics
Pragmatics article I referenced: www.brighthubeducation.com/en...
Input hypothesis: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_h...
Where I got the "packed his tools" example sentence: • Noam Chomsky: Deepest ...
**MY LINKS**
👉 Newsletter: www.mattvsjapan.com
👉 Website: refold.link/matt
👉 Twitter: / mattvsjapan
👉 Instagram: / mattvsjapan_
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:18 - THE PROBLEM
0:50 - Not knowing a word's alternate meaning
2:55 - Failing to determine which meaning is relevant
4:59 - Grammar: sentences are more than just words
7:00 - Not knowing a grammar rule or structure
8:13 - Failing to determine what grammar is at play
10:52 - Not understanding the context
15:39 - THE SOLUTION
17:25 - The mechanism behind immersion
19:32 - How immersion helps you understand sentences
22:44 - Conclusion
MUSIC:
1. Fine Toothed Chrome - Sam Barsh
2. Exhibit - OBOY
3. The Night Sky - Falls
4. Smoke and Mirrors - Falls
5. Respect Old Arrangements - Sam Barsh
6. Borealis - Isaac Joel
7. Intermissa - Isaac Joel
8. Gotcha Like Nu - Alkemi$t
9. Beach Pink - Isaac Joel
10. Cafe Electrique - Falls
11. Sandal - OBOY

Пікірлер: 583

@mattvsjapan 3 жыл бұрын

@ndescruzur4378 3 жыл бұрын

5:12 maybe I'm just stupid, but I'm also curious...Why "bigenning" and not "beginning"? You say it this way like all the times you say the word, I have to ask this so I can sleep well

@mattvsjapan 3 жыл бұрын

@@ndescruzur4378 There are many different dialects and accents of English. That's how people pronounce it where I live.

@ndescruzur4378 3 жыл бұрын

@@mattvsjapan very interesting, I didn't know some people pronounced it like that

@samwilleemusic9175 3 жыл бұрын

@@ndescruzur4378 yeah that does sound really odd to me now you point it out. I'm Australian and the promotion that people (Americans) always catch me out on is the er at the end of a word. Eg water →wata beer → Bea Keeper → keepa

@SQ8MXT 3 жыл бұрын

What you said about immersion learning that you feel like you don't progress much until you read watch something again after some time is so true. I started learning korean 3 months ago. I did some duolingo for a month and some flashcards then stopped and started reading books. Harry potter to be precise. The first chapter was hell I didn't know 90% of the words had to check everything in a dictinary, and slowly one page per day i was going forward. At the same time i also breezed through some grammar(never did any exercises or tried to memorize conjugation tables - just read it so that i can notice and recognize some constuctions and stuff during the reading). A month later i was on chapter 9 i think and i was kind of busy so i decided to read chapter 1 again instead of the next one. And what i found out was that i knew about 70% of the words and a lot of grammar was manageable, long sentences that used to be extra hard were also not that bad and also at that point (with the same amount of time available) i was able to read at least half of a chapter instead of a single page. The language is still really hard and i am not able to understand as much as i would like to but the progress is unbelievable.

@TheMrgrafixable 3 жыл бұрын

this man is singlehandedly transforming the way i study foreign languages

@arigato_tokyo2404 3 жыл бұрын

Yes!!😂🤣

@learneratheart2564 3 жыл бұрын

Sorry to burst your bubble.... But I heard he uses two hands when video editing.

@lakersrull 3 жыл бұрын

Can testify that I had not been studying as effectively before watching his videos, definitely revolutionary.

@devonoknabo2582 3 жыл бұрын

@@lakersrull not revulutionary he just learned forigen language of coaurse he knows his crap

@markoj.7675 3 жыл бұрын

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qt-naMVn0LXDo3k.html

@aureliodecanton9970 3 жыл бұрын

"Why You Can't Understand Sentences (Even Though You Know All the Words)" Exactly how I felt when I was reading my law school textbooks.

@Acro_LangLearn 2 жыл бұрын

LOL

@purpleplays69420 3 ай бұрын

Or if a doctor is not writing in the language of the gods

@DengueBurger 3 жыл бұрын

I used to think *learning* language-learning instead of ACTUALLY learning the language was a waste of time until I started watching your videos. You’ve made my language-learning so much more efficient and conscious.

@mrsucc2138 3 жыл бұрын

Made mine harder :(

@memestopicxd7649 3 жыл бұрын

@@mrsucc2138 how? Just curious

@Ryosuke1208 3 жыл бұрын

@@memestopicxd7649 Me too

@jakhongirtursunov5740 Жыл бұрын

me who watches language learning videos to learn english

@furensuko 3 жыл бұрын

When you said there are two possible meanings for "crack the window", I thought the other meaning was that the window was named crack lmao

@ColinPlayzPianoC418Music 3 жыл бұрын

Haha that would be "Crack, the window"

@t3hsis324 3 жыл бұрын

😂 omg didnt think of this but hilarious

@aimar2122 3 жыл бұрын

Lmao. I ain't a window but that definitely cracked me up

@reygiez.remando8429 2 жыл бұрын

@@aimar2122 that was lit

@learningtelugu4844 2 жыл бұрын

HAHAHHA

@radicala246 3 жыл бұрын

Football has Messi, Basketball has LeBron James and we language learners have Matt Vs Japan😤

@salvadoran_uwu Жыл бұрын

The World Cup final is this Sunday, by the way. A historical day.

@AConnorDN38416 3 жыл бұрын

I think one of the biggest anxieties, at least for me, with this language acquisition method is having faith that your brain will actually do what it's supposed to and gradually piece together the language automatically without having to put in time trying to memorize grammar rules and rack your brain trying to make sure you understand how they work. Its really good that you talk about how we dont really notice this process working since it happens so gradually. I do occasionally notice in my immersion that I can understand things that I didnt a few months ago, or sometimes even just a week or two ago, and that really helps me stay motivated to continue with this method.

@kiiturii 3 жыл бұрын

trust me it works. I have learnt 2 languages without any studying (including english). It just takes a bit of time but it's way more effective and WAY faster than any textbook method. Doing both is always best tho :)

@shotakonkin2047 2 жыл бұрын

@@kiiturii I have noticed that in myself, however I still need to find a good way to learn how to understand japanese to japanese dictionaries.

@angerventing2694 2 жыл бұрын

German is the first language I've learned through immersion. The beginning was a little messy but I pushed through the initial uncertainty and within 3 months I was comfortable in reading comprehension and listening as well to a certain degree. I can imagine a lot of learners wouldn't trust the process and instead just cried for help in the form of grammar rules. Now my German is fine, I got a tutor and did some self talk and am pretty much comfortable speaking. The verb forms just come naturally for me even if they're irregular, what is strange is I don't even consciously know which ones are the regular ones. I watched some videos with elaborate explanations of the German verb system, such as how you form the past from the present form of a verb based on its 'class' etc. All this has bypassed me and I've learned the verb forms as they've come up, whether past, present or whatever other form. They are just different vocabulary items to me that occur in the content I consume. So the need to form a past from the present never arises as I don't actually form the past from the present, but chances are I already know it. I can use most of the verbs without thinking then and in most cases I am correct. As it turns out, this is what most students learn through heavy memorization of rules and then fail when they are to use it. They think too much and their confidence drops.

@WaffleCake Жыл бұрын

I feel like I've barely learned anything so far but I've used Japanese correctly on accident without even meaning to speak Japanese several times already.

@glicogeno4550 Жыл бұрын

where did you get such ridicolous thing as automatically grasp grammar?

@Rimmer7 3 жыл бұрын

Context can indeed change a lot. Finnish - English Kuusi palaa - Six pieces Kuusi palaa - The christmas tree is on fire Kuusi palaa - Your moon is returning

@angelosunn6930 3 жыл бұрын

Not even learning Finnish but could they also like intersect and mean something like "Your moon is on fire" or "The christmas tree is returning" hypothetically ?

@ZERO-0- 3 жыл бұрын

@@angelosunn6930 Yeah, and also "your number six is burning", and "six of them are burning", etc

@theblackryvius6613 3 жыл бұрын

this is so cool to look at.I can'tfigure out why these would be the same phrase haha

@user-cn3tr6fh8b 3 жыл бұрын

suomi on paras kieli! ❤️

@thomask.98 3 жыл бұрын

@@ZERO-0- 'kuusi' couldn't mean 'your number six', but other than that, yeah. Your number six, I think, would have to be 'kuutosesi', from 'kuutonen' = 'a six'. Also kuusi just means spruce. Joulukuusi = christmas spruce (christmas tree)

@punikachi 3 жыл бұрын

Matt is just on a completely different level to other language channels at this point. I don't know why you would waste your time listening to self-proclaimed 'polyglots' who can't even speak their languages properly and give useless (and sometimes harmful) advice. Matt is the embodiment of what you get when you focus on one thing to an extremely high level. By doing this he has understood a wealth of things about the learning process which can't be discovered by people at a low level. If you think about it, a polyglot who has 'learned' 10 languages doesn't really learn in depth. From 'learning' their 3rd language to their 6th language, they don't learn anything new about language learning itself, they just apply the same methods with the same mentality each time they 'learn' a new language. If you spend your time getting 10 languages all to roughly the same level, which is obviously not a very high level, you're not going to be pushing any boundaries or learning new things. You're essentially learning the same thing 10 times over. Whereas focusing on one language for 10 years means you can obviously, first of all, achieve a native-like understanding of the language, but secondly you will have 10 years of experience of learning something to the highest possible level. It's hard to convert my mentalese into actual words, but what I'm trying to say is that I'm not going to watch any other language learning channels anymore. I just don't see any point. I really want to thank Matt. He is helping to change the way we think about language learning completely. Hopefully this new paradigm shift in our community will eventually affect the muggle world as well.

@curtisquigley6761 3 жыл бұрын

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." - Bruce Lee

@hanyuu8672 3 жыл бұрын

And how the fk do you believe that Matt isn't just another of those bad-advice giver youtuber without even realizing it just because you are sure that he's the correct one?. It just comes to a matter of preference of each learner.

@paolomojosujo7524 3 жыл бұрын

I agree that Matt is great but that doesn´t mean that everyone else sucks^^ The only time I was disappointed was the video about learning 2 languages at the same time. Including a graph showing "exponential progress as you increase daily study time" that had no values for x and y, no studies to back it up, not addressing the fact that people raised bilingually seem to reach the same level, no acknowledgement of adults doing it successfully. He also never tried it himself afaik but I guess that´s secondary. Someone who studies 10 languages *could* try different approaches/methods/techniques and learn from it. He might at least get a better grasp of what to do at the beginner or intermediate level because he went through the process more often. I studied English for ten years before I started with my L3. Over the past twelve years, I´ve learned French and Czech and now I´m working on getting my Japanese across the intermediate plateau. Trust me, I have learned *a lot* from it, more than if I had kept focusing on English for another 12 years. I think what makes Matt´s content great is not that he learned one language to a high level (there´d be hundreds of millions of experts if that were the case) but that he´s an intelligent guy with an interesting mind and a knack for explaining things.

@punikachi 3 жыл бұрын

@@hanyuu8672 Becuase I have watched countless language learning KZfaqrs over the past 6 years and none of them have helped me like Matt has.

@punikachi 3 жыл бұрын

@Al 72 If you would actually read the MIA website Matt encourages all of these things.

@0ijm3409fiwrekj 3 жыл бұрын

crazy how little talk about linguistics there is in language classes, you're a life saver

@Acro_LangLearn 2 жыл бұрын

Idk why 😕

@jackneals5585 3 жыл бұрын

As a native English speaker... If I WERE learning English as a second language. I would definitely use THE SIMPONS for my immersion. Soooo many great episodes in that show. Haha, an absolute classic!

@nootics 3 жыл бұрын

Most of us English L2 speakers basically immersed with KZfaq. Our native languages' internet is simply too limited and we're forced to use English. Not many here learned much from classroom English apart from some formalities. KZfaq is the best source for immersion, especially English immersion. I can't find a Matt in German KZfaq. I'm almost forced to use English to learn another language like Japanese

@Marguerite-Rouge 3 жыл бұрын

As a person who learn English as a second language, I still find the Simpsons too difficult, mostly because of their voices. But for cultural references, it's awesome !

@AlexG-wk3nh 3 жыл бұрын

@@nootics are you German? can you recommend me any good German youtubers or netflix shows? ive watched a lot of the most well know ones, but i find youtube doesnt have enough slice of life style content, is all monologue style which is good i guess

@latinavenger7472 3 жыл бұрын

@@AlexG-wk3nh definitly DARK

@nootics 3 жыл бұрын

@@AlexG-wk3nh it sounds stupid asf but I forgot a lot about german youtubers (and don't like most of them) and don't watch any show in german anymore despite living in a german speaking country. Some youtubers that you could be watching are: Felixba (tech reviews) Kurzgesagt german version Sempervideo (software news) AltF4Games (not so active sarcastic and very critical game reviewer) Space frogs (comedy) Clixoom science & fiction (science news) Galileo (TV show about learning new things/science, also has a youtube channel) Julienbam (apparently discontinued but he poured his heart into vids) bullshit TV (comedy) PetersKotstube (german youtube poop) maiLab (science) Also there is often some beef in german youtube between bigger low quality ones (that I didn't list) if I remember correctly. You could also start watching german dubs of shows because german dubbing is better than most other languages' dubs. They speak clearly and only slightly exaggerated, imo not bad for immersion in everyday speech. Try spongebob in german, especially the first three seasons. The german voice acting is on par if not better than english (i might be biased tho). (Also look for burningseries bsto, free german streaming website for series). Otherwise there's lots of literature for reading immersion because german obviously. I don't read much so I have trouble reading german literature sometimes xd. Oh you sa you were looking for more slice of life instead of monologue, my bad XD. But honestly I don't know much more, i only know these monologue style youtubers, youtube in general is monologue style, like this video by matt.

@giafrancesca474 3 жыл бұрын

My issue is that I read so slow that by the time I reach the end of a sentence I’ve forgotten the details of the clauses that came before 😅

@pawllein2594 3 жыл бұрын

same haha

@pichipichistory3992 3 жыл бұрын

Hahaha same here hahaha

@SoMooLand1nine7 3 жыл бұрын

that happens evrytime to me too. I just read it over and over 😂

@zerohbeat 3 жыл бұрын

Initially its always like that unfortunately. Just read more and more and don't worry about it :). Over time your reading speed will improve!

@JapanWalkerJJ 3 жыл бұрын

Idk how I understood your sentence in one go completely and agreed too 🤣

@talson3001 3 жыл бұрын

7:50 exactly. I remember few years ago when I started learning English through novels. It was hard to figure out the meaning with the complex syntaxes they use in literature. It was frustrating. But eventually I became fluent, and I’m so damn proud of myself at this point learning various languages quickly and easily.

@sandwichbreath0 3 жыл бұрын

Just reading your comment, it's clear the hard work paid off. Well done! I'm trying to do the same thing now with Russian novels.

@talson3001 3 жыл бұрын

@@sandwichbreath0 don’t give up, and KEEP learning! Eventually you’ll get it 😉

@user-ob5cw1pg9b 3 жыл бұрын

what’s your native language ?

@talson3001 3 жыл бұрын

@@user-ob5cw1pg9b Arabic.

@RonaldMcPaul 3 жыл бұрын

Drink every time Matt says, "as a whole."

@laythanlawrence9545 3 жыл бұрын

Wat you tryna kill me 💀😂

@d5555 3 жыл бұрын

If anyone's wondering, he said it 21 times.

@bigruan 3 жыл бұрын

@@d5555 HAHHAHA well done!

@davidm943 3 жыл бұрын

I baby barfed in the attempt

@supechube_k 3 жыл бұрын

100th liker

@givemeyourpanties7516 3 жыл бұрын

I never knew that center embedding had a technical term. In German we got told to avoid writing "Schachtelsätze", and "Schachtel" basically means box. So if you box a sentence in another sentence and repeat the boxing process, it gets confusing quickly lol. Now I know it's also called center embedding! Thanks for making these great videos!

@gamingmarcus 3 жыл бұрын

At least german uses puncuation to separate the different sub-sentences. English is just horrible when it comes to using commata.

@manuelakolar5595 3 жыл бұрын

Schachtelsätze 😁 その通りですね〜。

@Milark 3 жыл бұрын

Man your videos are so good now. The editor is really killing it. And the writing of the videos is also much more concise. Awesome work!

@archdukefranzferdinand567 3 жыл бұрын

The editing on this video is amazing

@danieldeoliveira4868 3 жыл бұрын

The examples in English from the point of view of an English learner really help me gain a sense of perspective and makes things I struggle with in understanding French seem a lot more like manageable hurdles that I can be confident will become easier with time.

@JM-kj3dx Жыл бұрын

bonne chance Olivera!

@MidosujiSen 3 жыл бұрын

This got posted on r/learnjapanese and they are not happy lol, Matt could make a video of a black screen with no sound and somehow those guys would find a way to complain about it.

@rebecca4254 3 жыл бұрын

And yet somehow his Japanese is still better than theirs lol

@davidribosome4326 3 жыл бұрын

@@rebecca4254 wait why? Does the sub reddit hate him for some reason?

@jimmybob3948 3 жыл бұрын

@@davidribosome4326 Its just full of elitists and gatekeepers because 1. Its reddit, and 2.They're all sad men who probably spend more time on reddit looking at how to learn Japanese rather than actually learning it, and are jealous that matt's method when it comes to language learning is more effective than what they've all spent years doing

@wanderingphy313 3 жыл бұрын

Where's the link to the thread? Why are you talking shit when you haven't even read the thread?

@user-zn5ix4sj4k 3 жыл бұрын

Nguyễn Duy Phương www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/hq27nl/why_you_cant_understand_sentences_even_though_you/? here ya go

@vanitas-ti2ze 3 жыл бұрын

coming from someone who's second language is english, i will say that having fun while immersing yourself in your target language is really important. i remember being around 6 or 7 and just watching videos in english on youtube for fun, and even though i couldn't understand much and had no idea what i was doing, i had fun. at age 13 (i think?) someone suggested i watch certain anime, and so i did. don't know why or how but i really liked how japanese sounds (dumb reason haha, tho i didn't think much of it, thought i'd just give it a shot) and because i learnt english through immersion, i thought ''oh hey i'll do the same with japanese''. so here i am, a year later, enjoying anime without subs n watching japanese content and music and having hella fun :D

@vali69 2 жыл бұрын

Cool, but keep in mind that "I", as in oneself, is always written as an uppercase letter. And work at your formatting in general and don't ignore it or you'll regret it later like me.

@JM-kj3dx Жыл бұрын

bro ever sisnce 5 years ago (I had already been having English in school for some years) but when I started immersing I felt like my level was skyrocketing, and in 2020 I decided "hey, I've mostly learnt English thru immersion, I bet I could learn French on my own, it didn't really pick up steam until one year later I found a guy who I could understand and by the end of the summer I could somewhat comfortably understand content in French!(nowadays I'd call myself a high-ish B1) and since then I've started learning 4 more languages! (including Japanese)

@lucminax 3 жыл бұрын

Around 6 months of MIA here, getting started with stage 2 soon. Re-watching some of the stuff I used for immersion initially was actually amazing, the progress is really palpable. Thanks for all your work Matt

@Acro_LangLearn 2 жыл бұрын

@latinavenger7472 3 жыл бұрын

For everyone who struggles with hearing the words which you learned freshly and think to much of that word to long, don't give up. First of all, concentrate on the content, not the words. It may be difficult in the first tries, but just blend the words out and focus on the content, moreover on the sentences. Eventually, trough immersion the word will stick intuativally.

@Acro_LangLearn 2 жыл бұрын

Just immersing would fix this problem

@DanielBillingslea313 3 жыл бұрын

Great Diagrams. Great Analogies. Great Examples. Great Video! Thank you! This is very helpful

@The13thDoct0r 3 жыл бұрын

The video editing and lighting has gotten so much better! So happy to see the channel improve and I’m loving these short form videos. Even though I typically already know the theory from watching Patreon Q&As, the refresher and seeing the visuals help a lot

@GrantABenesh 3 жыл бұрын

The production value of your videos is getting insane! Appreciate the work you do for all of us. Thank you.

@calin6327 3 жыл бұрын

You are so eloquent. I just love how you construct sentences and how you think. It's so fascinating !

@theodorwicklin2976 3 жыл бұрын

Love the editing in this video! Keep up the great content and I am sure you will get to 100k subs in no-time!

@Post-ModernCzechoslovakianWar 3 жыл бұрын

I need to watch more of your videos, especially the recent ones. You go so in detail to all sorts of nitty gritty things. You get into really technical weird, yet cool stuff. However, you do it in a way where us plebs can learn much practicality that will help us with immersion. ありがとうございました❣

@ShinoBells 3 жыл бұрын

This is a really interesting perspective, especially with what you discussed towards the end. I remember killing myself with pre-fabricated SRS decks for several hours every day, and all I did was tire myself. "I have to remember these kanji/words/grammar rules", and so on. It killed me to see so many failed cards and poor retention rates, sometimes spending half a minute on many with no progress. That has pushed me to quit more than once. In contrast, I once decided to just read a manga book to completion, only briefly referring to a dictionary when I saw something I didn't know, and then moving forward. That was the most effective and enjoyable time I had, because I made meaningful connections to the content without forcing myself to study for hours, ultimately enabling me to learn without stressing nearly as much. The most I would do is add JP>JP Anki cards for complex words, and I can still recall and recognize these terms over a year later. I think Heisig's RTK and Kodansha's methods could be useful for vocabulary components, but nothing beats active use and custom cards in the end. My understanding of grammar was boosted through this as well. It's just so much easier to maintain study when you can enjoy the process.

@BackiNator123 3 жыл бұрын

hey matt ^^ just wanna say thank you. i stumbled across your 3 h video of AJATT on february this year and i got so inspired that i started. now half a year later i can understand enough that i can watch japanese gramar lessons in japanese and understand around 50 % of anime stuff depending on what the level is. i was sceptifcal like everyone but this really works. i slacked off a bit for one month nnot doing much immersion which threw me back quite far but im still at it. thanks for all the great advice . thanks to which i can probably be able to understand japanese relatively good in about a year ^^

@cndcpwll 3 жыл бұрын

Killer video, Matt & Team! Very succinct and the editing skills are such a level up. Love the simplified explanations of WHY and also that you provide tools to move past roadblocks. Excellent work!

@portt2569 3 жыл бұрын

omg the quality of your videos went 🔥🔥

@ourboy6878 3 жыл бұрын

Another great and in-depth video matt! I've noticed this happening to me occasionally but you did a really great job explaining it!

@nykchanneru 2 жыл бұрын

I’m so fascinated by your videos even though I theoretically understand both Japanese and English and the concepts in between… I spent a lot of my Japanese language learning just being like come what may as far as Japanese being conceptually different from English… so interesting to hear about all this ina technical perspective

@mattvsjapan 2 жыл бұрын

Sounds like you were very good at tolerating ambiguity, which is probably the most important part of the process!

@ScottHWMoo Жыл бұрын

You have a gold mine of knowledge Matt. At the time this came out I was too noob to understand, but now I can and am at this stage. I'm glad you have this treasure trove that no matter what year it is I can come back to review different parts of struggles at different levels. This advice is currently helping me a lot.

@AleksandarRadlovacki 3 жыл бұрын

I'm so glad you made this video. I 've been wondering about this topic for the longest time, I know each and every single part of the sentence but not the entire sentence, but once I put it in a translator it makes perfect sense. Awesome video. At the end of the day its all about immersion for the most part.

@stephaniem8278 3 жыл бұрын

In the sentence "The old man the ships," I feel that the function of the word "old" is more problematic to understanding the sentence than the function of the word "man."

@sidetrack2488 3 жыл бұрын

The fact that there is only one old man in the picture and he's not in a ship was what tripped me up!

@lowellcunningham3332 3 жыл бұрын

He also changed the punctuation... By adding an apparently superfluous comma.

@weirdbunmi 3 жыл бұрын

Personally, I think both "old" and "man" contribute to the confusion, because "old man" is a common word combination. The key is understanding that this sentence is using the words separately, like "the old work the ships" (which is already using an adjective as a noun, since we are to understand "the old" to refer to "old people," like "the rich," "the poor," or "the sick") or "the deckhands man the ship" (now made much less confusing with the context of "deckhands"). Using the words next to each other yet not as an adjective describing the noun next to it confuses us, rather than the definition of either word being more at fault.

@Narulopo 3 жыл бұрын

The old man the ship's can be interpreted in different ways from speaking and reading from my point of view "I'm tired of your books about "The old man, the ships" and all that stuff" ...And them I told them that the old... Man! The ships! There are pirates inside our ships! So I think actually if you are reading something the punctuation must be well done to not create confusion. And when you are listening there must be pauses, variations on the voice If you are watching movies, the expression on the faces could help, everything that is visible. And when you are talking with another person there must be some other things to be taken in account.

@rbrtgrdn 3 жыл бұрын

@@lowellcunningham3332 I noticed that. The comma is unnecessary.

@randenbrown1373 3 жыл бұрын

Game changer. And I was told to consider everything in my target language, every detail. You didn't studder a single time through out this entire video, and I appreciate that! Please keep doing this

@mxl8755 3 жыл бұрын

I really hope your channel grows, The editing is insane! Your Dialogue is perfection! Such great Quality! Your give people truthful and helpful way of learning, instead of false teaching or quick fame. ありがとうございました! 頑張っとあなたの中国語.

@koroshiya_1 3 жыл бұрын

Matt, I just came across your channel through your interview with Lamont. Firstly, your understanding of linguistics is highly impressive. Secondly, as a language-learner, I relate to all of these issues! Thank you for taking the time to make this video. I've learned a lot.

@ItsameAlex 2 жыл бұрын

very kind of you to say so Lou

@luisphiliper7297 3 жыл бұрын

Hi Matt, great content as usual. I discovered your channel a few days ago and I am TRULY TRULY AMAZED. You guys are bringing the language learning game to a whole new level, and for free, that is awesome. I started messing around with the multiple addons that you recommend and mention, but it has been a frustrating experience. Most of them I got to work, but for example idk how the hell should I use the MorphMan (I did like 50% of what is written in the guide and the rest of the info there I didnt quite understand), MIA addon and Low-key Anki properly. I realized that during my review today because of the MorphMan addon the sentences appeared in a more coherent and effective order (like, new cards and "again" cards showed up in an alternated fashion which makes perfect sense, and the more mature cards showed up later). I don't need to rush to optimize all these addons, mainly because Im an Anki newbie and I have other stuff to do, but I'd like to get over with the "setting up phase" and kinda of optimize my setup as soon as possible so I can make the most out of it in the next months. Anyways, at this very moment I'm studying the RRTK deck and the Core 2k/6k/10k Optimized Deck with native audio. It seems to be a good deck to study, because I don't have the time to build my own sentences. Should I bother with messing with the functions of the MIA addon? I have it installed but don't know how to use it. On top of that I'm studying a few minutes of grammar daily. Thanks for everything you do. I'd love to donate a big sum to help you guys but I can't. In the meanwhile I wish you guys all the best! =)

@persimmcn 3 жыл бұрын

learning korean and this just happened to me the other day! was really excited when i saw the title of this video, great info ty!!

@superioryeti2235 3 жыл бұрын

Dang, my mans is extremely attractive

@anawkwardsweetpotato4728 3 жыл бұрын

Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed 😅❤

@jiren9675 3 жыл бұрын

*man

@showtelll 3 жыл бұрын

@@jiren9675 its AAVE he's correct.

@mrsucc2138 3 жыл бұрын

@@jiren9675 Slang*

@jiren9675 3 жыл бұрын

@@mrsucc2138 don't think so. Can you show me something to believe it?

@paolomojosujo7524 3 жыл бұрын

I think this is one the main reasons why I find learning Japanese much harder than learning European languages (I´ve learned English, French and Czech so far). Anyway, here are some sentences where I had trouble in English "He´s a keeper" - A good potential long-term partner, not a goalkeeper or a gate keeper "Me and my brother would go camping" - we used to go camping "Please help yourself" - Go ahead and take some food

@Martinobeat Жыл бұрын

I don’t know if you’ve heard the other ones for - go ahead and do something like food at a party or asking to use the toilet or whatever “help yourself” “Fill your boots” “Knock yourself out”

@nikih3604 3 жыл бұрын

Great video, Matt! I found this very helpful and motivating. Thank you! ☺️

@thedoctorate 2 жыл бұрын

Beautifully done Matt. Continued success and peace to you man.

@spottybeats 3 жыл бұрын

honestly watching your channel went from ok, cool, good info, if i see another vid ill watch it to *checking sub feed for matt*

@MidosujiSen 3 жыл бұрын

Legit, every video he makes is a banger

@averyhazen8466 9 ай бұрын

This definitely makes me feel better about my Japanese. Great advice on how we can tweak our learning to close those gaps! ありがとうございます!!!

@yashsingh6508 3 жыл бұрын

Explained so well. Fantastic quality!

@plantronic 3 жыл бұрын

this has been a pretty eye opening video for me. thanks! great content! :)

@DashiSmash 3 жыл бұрын

I like the ideas you raised in this video. The incremental improvements a language learner makes day by day are so small, they're completely imperceptible. It feels like no progress is being made despite immersing and studying for hours every day. Learning to take a step back to focus on the things that you can comprehend is a skill in itself because we're all so used to concentrating on what we don't understand yet, which can be really demotivating considering the depth of what is incomprehensible. Treating known-sentences with disdain is definitely something I'm guilty of, which I now realise might be adding to the challenge of learning a foreign language. From now on I might try and appreciate the words/sentences that I already understand since there might be something small hidden inside that'll help to push my cutting edge a little further forward.

@dinnersat630 3 жыл бұрын

Love the channel. Hope to improve my Japanese significantly. Thanks for all the help. Much love.

@alexprus7953 3 жыл бұрын

Favourite quote from live chat: Immersion = 42

@hovertech7837 3 жыл бұрын

It's content like this that helps the world. We appreciate man

@Yotanido 3 жыл бұрын

I think what you said about not even realising how much you understand is really important. It's very frustrating watching a TV show or something in your target language and not understanding much, but when you think about it, you might actually understand more than you realise. And you don't even notice how you improve. - I learnt English as a second language. I never really studied beside the bare minimum to get through school. I just realised that I could speak English one day. Immersion is pretty damn powerful. I wish I knew how to do the same with learning Japanese, but since I wasn't even trying to learn English, I didn't really pay much attention to what I did. The only thing I do know, is that I started almost exclusively with reading. With Japanese, that doesn't seem like a smart choice, lol.

@ExcellenceExemplar 3 жыл бұрын

I appreciate your intelligence, articulation, and meticulousness of language learning. Without a doubt, I'll be purchasing your merchandise 👌🏿

@theogoldsworthy-hess4869 3 жыл бұрын

Matt, you are levels beyond any other language learning channel.

@david_oliveira71 3 жыл бұрын

So very important and essential - thanks a lot for making this video!!

@christophersteedman6479 3 жыл бұрын

Nice solid examples and very well conveyed. Thanks!

@seanpaulson9098 3 жыл бұрын

Wow...you might be my new favorite poly for goto videos about language learning. Great stuff.

@mudskipper2234 6 ай бұрын

Its full of insights! Thank you very much for breaking down this issue.

@jonathangoldthorpe9434 Жыл бұрын

Such a gods explainer Matt you have a real skill in doing this.

@Chessisthegamee 3 жыл бұрын

Great video Matt! This is very helpful.

@smoothbanana 3 жыл бұрын

Good points Matt. This problem also occurs intra-language, e.g. making sense of an engineering textbook when you don't know your physics. The more blocks of knowledge you have, the easier it is to make inferences.

@aliasjon8320 3 жыл бұрын

24 min vid , damn. Editing looks crisp , I really look forward to these high effort (and as far as my judgement goes , high-quality) uploads

@user-gz8cj5el9u 3 жыл бұрын

the edition is so cool, amazing work

@Charls03 3 жыл бұрын

Very interesting to watch and be told why this happens since this happens to myself learning french!

@Tehui1974 3 жыл бұрын

I like your videos bro. Other than your advice & knowledge of language learning, the other reasons I like your videos are because (1) you have chapters on the video (2) you make your point straight away, without waffling on and on like other polyglots.

@fridazhang5363 Жыл бұрын

What you shared helps me a lot,thanks

@leahlenau7522 3 жыл бұрын

I just reached this issue with a grammar sentence structure in Chinese. Now I know how to focus on understanding the issue better. Thank you!

@voided9643 3 жыл бұрын

Sup, Matt, big fan. Keep up the AMAZING content

@komoru9203 3 жыл бұрын

I really liked this video. I think this is a great reminder of the complexity to language learning outside of memorization. It reminds me of books I read when I was little called Amelia Bedelia. The main character would misinterpret phrases in similar circumstances as the ones in this video. For example, someone would say ‘I hear a ringing in my ears’ and she would assume it to mean they hear ringing from a device like a doorbell or a phone.

@quatreraberbawinner2628 3 жыл бұрын

Just found your channel, very useful stuff. as someone who gets alot of my vocabulary straight from the dictionary this has been a problem for me, context is important

@charlenedalrymple7739 3 жыл бұрын

New subscriber; this was an awesome video! Headed off to learn more about sentence mining and spaced repetition .

@masakomaggie4071 3 ай бұрын

Thank you for you video. It provides me for strategy for me to improve my B1-B2 level to B2-C1 level in CEFR.

@leggomyeigonosensei 11 ай бұрын

Finally, a video that teachers that most learners that a language book that no one has written need neglect has been found!

@perceptions101 6 ай бұрын

Omg what an amazing video, this exact thing I have been struggling with. Such an amazing explanation, solution, and great point about taking time to appreciate what you already take for granted. I spend too much time irritated about what I don’t know that I never step back and say, wow, just a few years ago this language sounded like jibberish. And now I almost understand everything.

@ibrahimalom115 3 жыл бұрын

To be honest with korean I have been using MIA without really knowing it. I wish to become a polyglot so although I unintentionally used MIA, in the future I will be mindful of the amount of input I have. Btw I am only 15 and I am learning my 4th language. I hope to get fluency in all of them and I am currently native in 2 and intermediate in 2. I just decided to make a comment to thank the underrated linguist Matt for making a method that is so obvious yet helpful. My comment is not necessarily related to the video but I thought that I should comment this as it will help Matt to see how he is helping me (and many others) who is essentially a random 15 year old in London who never even thought of speaking more languages other than his 2 mother languages.

@Pad_See_Ew 3 жыл бұрын

Great break down. Exactly where I'm at now trying to learn Thai. Context is difficult esp. w/expressions/slang. Same words w/different meanings and vocab that sounds the same and/or placed in different places in a sentence trips me up esp w/ tones /tonal language(s). Trying to learn common phrases, comprehending vocab, recognizing it fast before sentence structure seems an essential first as a beginner.

@semp224 3 жыл бұрын

I needed to understand this phenomenon! Wow !

@MidosujiSen 3 жыл бұрын

Bro whoever is making these thumbnails deserves a raise lmao

@keeplearning4L 3 жыл бұрын

i genuinely enjoy this content. please upload more of these long explanation videos! also can we get more mia content 😩

@BryanAJParry 11 ай бұрын

A wonderful and very well-made video.

@JoaoPedro-pl2be 3 жыл бұрын

man your videos are so useful! thanks

@tanhuichuin9696 2 жыл бұрын

This is actually very good stuff. I have many coursemates in my language course who say this exact same thing and of course i recommended immersion. But i don't know how to back my suggestion up. Now i know how.

@theswedishpolyglot 3 жыл бұрын

Awesome video! :)Many new concepts to apply!

@josho6854 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for posting this video. There are a lot of good and useful ideas here. I think your objective is to say "don't get frustrated when this happens, it is a normal part of learning" and also "don't get hung up on trying to figure out this mystery, just move on". I think it would be a good idea to state these goals up front at the beginning of your video. I know this makes production more time consuming, but giving your videos a little more structure would help your viewers. Something like Intro=>objective=>outline=>point1...pointx=>summary.

@ibrahimali9564 3 жыл бұрын

What a great video! thank u so much!

@logan8374 3 жыл бұрын

i swear ive had this problem happen so often. when my gf asks if i understand ill say "i know what they just said but im not sure that i understand.." then she'll look at me with a puzzled look. Kinda felt stupid until I saw the title for this video. I definitely need to do both more grammar and word practice!

@t3hsis324 3 жыл бұрын

Damn, glad you did that collab with Xioma as I feel like my brain is leveling up. Thank you for this high quality content. (Also some of those English examples were pretty hard for me, and english is my native tongue 😅)

@youhofairy 3 жыл бұрын

really good explanation!

@PhantomFroggy 3 жыл бұрын

Very interesting. Thank you

@donitalia 3 жыл бұрын

one year of turkish immersion all day every day in my headphones, on my laptop and in istanbul where I live now and I honestly cant understand 95% of sentences i hear. I can tell you exactly what words were said, and if i wrote them down and looked at the sentence on paper for literally 10 minutes I could probably guess correctly 50% of the time. I rewatch some mvj videos every couple months to make sure im doing it correctly, but otherwise I never watch anything in english. Just a fun fact, felt like sharing with the internet. Thanks

@mingo3568 Жыл бұрын

How about now?

@donitalia Жыл бұрын

@@mingo3568 It's improved quite a bit, although i'll admit I am not immersing nearly as much as I was the first year. no doubt this method is effective.

@mingo3568 Жыл бұрын

@@donitalia That really inspiring to hear, i'm learning arabic and listening is so tough to understand sentences even though i find reading easier

@donitalia Жыл бұрын

@@mingo3568 good luck! I am not as qualified as Matt to give advice but I'd say just spend as much time as possible doing whatever is enjoyable for you.

@redredredtail 3 жыл бұрын

learnt more about linguistics and leap-frogged my progress when learning Japanese!

@sunfirefire45 3 жыл бұрын

This gave some solace in my language learning.

@bk1507 3 жыл бұрын

As someone who used to live in Japan, I feel that this problem is especially true for Japanese. Japanese sentences often contain grammar patterns which are separate to vocabulary. As a matter of fact, when I was taught Japanese the grammar was taught like vocabulary i.e. You want to express this, then you need that grammar pattern. I feel like in english, for example, the grammar is ordering the words in the right sequence for the most part. So just knowing the vocab will go a long way. You can understand a lot of english with just knowing 1000 words, but you wouldn't get as far in Japanese knowing a similar amount of vocabulary.

@seanung6803 3 жыл бұрын

did you finally find a solution for learning japanese ?

@dariusanderson2417 3 жыл бұрын

that is so true. Don't know if you can't actively put grammar on the back burner and learn the 1000 most common Japanese words can still speak Japanese or even the most common 2000

@HumbleDictator 3 жыл бұрын

Awesome video. I'm gonna use some of your examples to create a methodology lesson for written comprehension.

@excrossbones 3 жыл бұрын

really great video, keep up the wood work

@JapanWalkerJJ 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for putting out such useful info Matt! Now back to learning my kanji and vocabulary before I forget due to so much info from this vid 🤣

@GXrevolution96 3 жыл бұрын

Fantastic and informative as usual, Matt. Keep up the good work The issue I always seem to have to identify those sentences that are on "my cutting edge". How do I know when it is too far above my level or not, and how can I identify those sentences that will push me to the next level?

@mattvsjapan 3 жыл бұрын

There is no need to identity them; just keep reading/listening and skipping the things you can't understand. As long as there is at least *some* stuff that you're understanding, then you can be sure that you're cutting edge is automatically being pushed forward. LIke I say in the video, when something is truly on your level, it feels so natural you generally don't even notice.