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hey guys what's going on a Xiao ma okay
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so first things first I know the title
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flows I click baby I'm sorry but I
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really do believe that you can actually
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learn any language in 24 hours there's
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no shortcuts to getting fluent in any
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language you definitely can't get fluent
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in a language of 24 hours but you can
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definitely learn how to have a basic
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conversation in any language in 24 hours
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or less and I really believe this is
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true I've done it with languages as
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diverse as Korean and fuel needs and
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this of course all runs totally contrary
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to most language learning textbooks
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which promote this myth you have to
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endlessly drill tones alphabet stroke
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order numbers whatever before you can
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even get started speaking the first
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first just because a lot of people have
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been asking me I wanted to do a little
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bit of an intro about like Who I am and
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why I speak Chinese I get messages like
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this all the time so wanted to talk
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about that a little bit if you're not
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interested in this part you can click
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down in the description for the time
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stamp to just skip all this backstory if
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you're not interested so I started
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learning Chinese in like 2008 it was a
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cert in the summer after high school you
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know so I saw this ad for this free
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Chinese class and I was like yeah sign
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me up that sounds great I grew up in New
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York speaking only English but I was
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just kind of always interested in
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learning languages and so ended up in
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college going to
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with China for a year you know at that
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point I had already studied one year of
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college Chinese and so by the time I
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went to China I wasn't really fluent but
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I had some language under my belt in
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China I took this class called Princeton
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in Beijing which is like a super intense
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immersion experience in Chinese like
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that experience of doing that super
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intense immersion Chinese class where
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like they will literally kick you out of
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the program if you spoke any English
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after that I was probably able to speak
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like basic conversational Chinese and
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then I stayed on in Beijing for another
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year by the end of that year I was
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definitely you know fully fluent in
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Chinese you know especially if you grew
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up in America the way that we learn
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languages here I think is really just
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messed up and I think the people I think
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that people don't understand like how
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people actually like how people actually
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acquire languages I think people spend
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time learning like Spanish and stuff and
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just from a textbook the way that I
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learn Mandarin in China it was it was
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through a combination of talking to
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people and a lot of unki and a lot of
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memorization you know I was in school
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there to learn Chinese but I tried to
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focus less on like the school aspect of
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it and more the fact that I was in this
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like crazy amazing country with all
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these things that I had never heard
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about and all these people that I had
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never met and so I just tried rather
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than spend most my time in school just
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spend my time like with people having
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like conversations and so I spent a lot
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of time talking to spend a lot of time
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hanging out you know I have a whole
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other channel called re in Beijing which
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I'll also link here where I talk about
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like methods for language learning and
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that sort of stuff so I definitely used
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I definitely do a lot of memorization
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and a lot of flashcards a lot of unki to
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memorize Chinese but I would say the
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main thing honestly was just really
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trying to live my life just using as
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much Chinese as possible to be honest I
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don't really remember it like it's been
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a long time since I first started
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learning Chinese so I think the best way
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for me to kind of explain how I
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originally learn Chinese is how I learn
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languages now which is just sort of a
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refinement of that method you know
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people say like oh man you learn
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languages like oh it's gonna take you
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forever
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like years whenever like guys I'm
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telling you right now you can learn any
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language and I promise you I guarantee
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this because I know because I've done it
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you can actually learn to have a basic
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conversation in any language in 24 hours
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and here's how you do it so you know how
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most language learning textbooks will
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just start out with like a whole list of
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like you must first learn the totals and
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you must first learn the alphabet you
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have to first learn how to say all the
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numbers and all the colors and all that
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will fit that okay because that's not
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how you actually start learning like
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that's not how real people start
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learning languages like how babies start
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learning languages is like this the mom
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says to them like hey baby do you want
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some more milk or like here you can eat
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this like the parents giving them basic
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sentences they're not starting from the
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house but they're not starting from
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tones okay it's starting from basic
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conversation how I learn languages is I
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try to imitate like that baby way of
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learning languages as much as possible
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like I think to myself okay if I want to
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have a conversation with somebody how
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like how can I actually do that so I
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have a list of sentences that I make
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with any sort of language that I want to
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speak like if I'm talking to a random
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stranger in the street what's the basic
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stuff that I need to say like hello I
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can speak Korean then they say maybe how
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do you speak Korean I say well I learned
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it yesterday or like I learned it by
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talking to my friend let's say I want to
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go to the market right I wouldn't know
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how to say how much is this right
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I won't know how to say $1 I want to
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know I say a dollar 50 I want to know
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how to be able to say that looks tasty
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you're like you know I really like
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eating foods Oh needs food like I like
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there are these things that I that I
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know that I will need to be able to say
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in a basic conversation and so what I do
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is I have this list of sentences and I
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just try to memorize them so so I I'll
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go to a friend
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who speaks that native language I think
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it's best to do this in person with an
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actual native speaker rather than rather
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than like online somewhere just because
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like you know in person you can ask them
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for clarification like why is this like
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this I think it's you can probably do it
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online but I think it's easier if
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possible to do it in person with a real
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native speaker get them to translate all
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the stuff that you want to say and then
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um record them that's really important
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you have to record what they're saying
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you know for long-term memory retention
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I'll put it into a system called funky
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which is you know I've talked about this
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before especially on my heart in Beijing
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channel but it's just it's flashcards so
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you know it has to English from the
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front or whatever like native languages
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and then the back is gonna be you know
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the food Jodi Nia's Korean Spanish
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whatever equivalent plus the audio right
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see so and every time you click on the
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flash card and it says hey in English
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and you click on it and it's gonna flip
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over and then it's gonna say in you know
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in your target language it's gonna play
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the audio of whatever the sentences I'll
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memorize them and then I'll just go out
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and practice it right on I know what I
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need to say and then I'll just go and
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try to use it okay hold on
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so one thing I know a lot of you guys
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are thinking right now probably is like
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you're just memorizing these lists of
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sentences what if somebody asks you
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something that you didn't memorize right
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like wouldn't that be weird so what I
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try to do with these target sentences is
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I try to like I try to memorize
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sentences that I think are
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representative of the language in some
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way so I want to know how to say like I
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like eating green foods if I memorize
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that sentence I like eating Korean food
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then you might be thinking well okay
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you've just memorized one sentence but
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you actually haven't memorized one
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second so you've memorized the pattern
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of speech you've memorized I like eating
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Korean food but if you learn how to say
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the word Chinese you now also know how
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to say I like eating Chinese food right
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you can all say I like eating American
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food I like eating German food you you
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have like a branch of all these things
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and grammars that you've just memorized
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you know a sentence pattern and you
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haven't just memorized I like eating
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food you've memorized I like riding a
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bicycle maybe that works the same way
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and so by osmosis
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your brain is naturally gonna figure out
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how to say other stuff
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to say stuff other than what you've just
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memorized don't just memorize words
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don't just memorize like Apple or like
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impaired like obviously at some point
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you do have to remember as words or
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learn words what's important is to
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memorize patterns of speech memorize how
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to say where is the park because then
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you know how to say where's the bathroom
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if you learn the word bathroom so try to
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memorize these patterns and I've gotten
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better and better at like learning which
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sentences to memorize to give me a
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better grasp of the language and then
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another question you might have is like
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but what about all that stuff in the
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beginning like what about the tones what
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about the alphabet like the characters
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like what about the nub what numbers 1
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to 10 isn't that stuff important my
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philosophy is that the stuff that's
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important you're gonna learn because if
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you need to know it you're gonna learn
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it so numbers okay do you need to know
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numbers one to ten maybe you do and
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maybe you don't if you're learning to
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buy stuff in the marketplace you
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probably do want to know the numbers one
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to ten right in context of like how much
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is this this two dollars right because
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not every not every language is the
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number two can be the same as two
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dollars right so in a marketplace
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context it might make sense for you to
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learn numbers but maybe you don't care
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about numbers so not important right
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maybe you don't care about colors like
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okay that's right what about tones right
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if you're in Chinese like don't you have
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to know how to say ma ma ma right so you
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don't call your mom a horse or something
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like that like the answer is like yes
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and no it sort of depends like when I
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was learning foo Joanie's which is a
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which is a Chinese language which has a
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very complicated tonal system there's
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not a single resource on the Internet
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that's gonna help you learn foo Joanie's
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tones there's no website you can go to
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that's gonna say this is tone one in foo
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Tony this is tone to this is don't three
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and practice it doesn't exist
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right I just ended up memorizing my
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friend said and just ignoring tones
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right so for a while I was thinking like
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oh how am I gonna memorize new journeys
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tones in the end what I just did was
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just ignored it I was just like all
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right why can't memorize food renews
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tones so what I'm gonna do is just
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memorize how he said stuff read and just
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learn everything naturally in context so
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if you ask me the word foo Joe leaves in
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foo Johnny's right which you are what
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the tones are for that I don't know
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maybe rising tone maybe there's a middle
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tone maybe there's like a falling tone
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um put UI
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mid blow me I don't know but I just
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memorized how to say it like that right
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because I just listen to my friends say
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that all over and over and I learned and
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I just memorized him saying so I don't
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really know the tones I just know this
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is how my friend said it right and isn't
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that how babies learn languages too like
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babies are just sitting there like with
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their mom telling them the word for
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Chinese is jong-un right and the kids
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not thinking or in Oh Joanne what sound
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like first tone on that jaw or is that
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like second tone on the wind or maybe
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that's fourth oh like that's not what
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the kids stick and the kids just like oh
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my mom said Joel went to me a thousand
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times so I have perfect tones of drum
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line now because she said it to me a
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thousand times so as far as writing yes
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I admit my method does not work for try
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and learn how to write like that's a
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different beast you do have to spend a
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lot of time just memorizing characters
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and stuff it depends on what you're
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looking to do like you know for me with
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Chinese like it's just really cool to be
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able to go out and speak to people in
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the street and I do happen to be able to
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know how to read and write Chinese I and
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for me that's important because you know
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I have lots of friends that I like to be
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able to text and write to in Chinese you
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know that's important to me but it's not
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necessarily important to you and you
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don't necessarily have to force yourself
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into this paradigm that language classes
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are saying well you have to learn how to
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read and write you don't necessarily
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need to write that's that's your choice
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in your decision
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I hope this answered some questions that
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you guys have I am working on some merch
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now as well which you can see in like
00:11:14
the teespring merch shelf below so if
00:11:17
you guys are interested in supporting
00:11:18
the channel no guarantees about quality
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by the way because like I haven't gotten
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the samples myself so I'm gonna make a
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more formal announcement once I actually
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get like the samples of that stuff but
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if you're interested in checking that
00:11:30
out visit the teespring page so yeah
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thanks for watching see you guys next
00:11:38
[Music]
