Language learning Archives

28Apr

28 Apr 2020

The Three Language Acquisition Stages

They say “you are what you eat”. In the global information age, maybe it should be “you are what you can say”. Language, in its varied manifestations, is mankind’s defining achievement, and it also defines us. Language can be social, political, technical, practical, entertaining, sensual, philosophical, and much more. At the banquet of life, each language is another course. The better you can [...]

07Jan

7 Jan 2020

How to Learn Chinese: My Top 6 Tips

Learning Chinese

I studied Mandarin Chinese 50 years ago. It took me nine months to reach a level where I could translate newspaper editorials from English to Chinese and from Chinese to English, read novels and interpret for people, I did this in the age of the open-reel tape recorder, long before the age of the Internet, […]

26Nov

26 Nov 2019

The Definition of a Polyglot

Motivation

As people who speak multiple languages, polyglots like to use those languages; we like to see how we do. But there is an element of performance. Are you better than me? Am I better than you? For some people that’s fine. I think a lot of us are very happy, in fact, when we hear somebody speak better than we do.

20Aug

20 Aug 2019

What Makes Languages Easier to Learn

Recommended

I’m often asked, how long does it take to learn a language, which language is the easiest to learn, are some languages easier than others and so forth, so here’s my take on what makes languages easier. The first thing is how much similar vocabulary is there. If you are an English speaker learning French […]

06Aug

6 Aug 2019

The Most Effective Language Learning Method

Techniques

I want to talk today, in the subject of language learning, about something that’s kind of been running around in my mind. I come up with all these things that are the key to language learning and I may have used this before, I don’t know, but it suddenly dawned on me that the most […]

30Jul

30 Jul 2019

First 3 Months Fluency is NOT the Goal

Learning Techniques

Today I want to talk about three months because three months comes up quite often. We have our 90-day challenges at LingQ. I have done quite a few. I have done it in Polish, in Korean, in Arabic and Persian and maybe some other, I can’t remember. We had the 3 Months to Fluency that […]

16Jul

16 Jul 2019

Can Older Adult Learners Acquire New Languages?

Learning Languages

I often hear this question from adult learners. Sometimes my followers on Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter bring this up. In fact, not so long ago I had the following request from one of my followers. “I want to do some research on the problems of older language learners and see what I can do to help them.” I replied by asking. “What do you consider to be an older language learner?” His answer [...]

20Jun

20 Jun 2019

Answering Language Learning Questions

Q&A

Language Learning Questions was uploaded onto Steve’s YouTube channel on Jan 13th, 2013 Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here. I’m going to follow up with another video. I received a comment from a Miss Soule, who is a Canadian who is studying Korean and other languages from what I can gather from looking at her YouTube […]

06Jun

6 Jun 2019

Patience In Language Learning

Learning Languages, Learning Techniques

Patience In Language Learning was uploaded onto Steve’s YouTube channel on August 10, 2015 Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here. As you know, I like to talk about language learning. If you enjoy my channel, please subscribe. I try to put out a video at least once a week on tips or experience that I have […]

14May

14 May 2019

The Details of Language Learning

Learning Languages

The Details of Language Learning has been transcribed from Steve’s YouTube channel. The original video was published on July 30. 2013 Hi there, Steve Kaufmann, today I want to talk a little bit about the details of languages. The reason this comes up is because of the discussion we had when I put up […]

I speak 20 languages