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Hey guys
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I'm so excited to share some fresh ideas on language learning with you today
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I was recently very inspired by an interview I conducted with William
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for my Chinese channel
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William is from the UK
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he is a medical student and has been self-learning Chinese for three years
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Despite never having lived in China
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his Mandarin level is just insane
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This isn't just because he pronounces everything perfectly
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and gets all the tones right
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It's also because he knows how to express himself naturally and elegantly
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My Chinese audience was very impressed
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His story and special "methods" gave me a lot of reflection on my learning journey
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At some point
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we may be studying in an ineffective or incorrect way
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Even though I have experience in learning different languages
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it's always great to learn from others and get some fresh ideas
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So that we can keep progressing!
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In this video
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I'll be sharing my reflections based on my conversation with William
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I hope it can inspire you as well
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If you're interested
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you can check out the whole conversation video
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on my Chinese channel
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It's in Mandarin but with English subtitles
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So, Now let's get into the video!
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I told you that both me and my Chinese audience
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are very impressed by Willami's perfect pronunciation
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It really seems like he grew up in China or lived there for a long time
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Of course
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I was very curious to know how he learned
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and practiced his pronunciation
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First
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he really focused on the basics of pronunciation and imitation
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When I first started
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I spent a lot of time
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Concentrating on studying pinyin
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I watched a lot of YouTube videos that taught these topics
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There are many teachers that will explain
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The position of tongue and teeth
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And how you should position and shape your lips
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After I practiced with those videos
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I started to know how to pronounce pinyin
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For example
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the initials and the finals
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At the beginning I studied 2 words for example
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I would listen to the pronunciation
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And then repeat with the echo method
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It’s a method to learn pronunciation
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Where you first listen and then repeat it inside your brain
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And then pronounce it out loud
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So I start with 2 words
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for example
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And I start imitating
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An entire sentence
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And later when I am watching a TV show
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Or listening to a podcast
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I would listen to a sentence
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And then imitate it after and so on
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But I won’t pause when I am listening
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I’ll just
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I’ll just imitate some parts that seem interesting to me
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Or…
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The tones that I haven't mastered yet
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Or follow the feeling of the rhythm
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That feels right
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We can see all the efforts he made for good pronunciation from the very beginning
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Some people study for years but still make basic mistakes
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myself included
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That's because we didn't give enough attention to pronunciation at the beginning
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We have to constantly review ourselves
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and fix the mistakes
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One of the best methods he proposes is the Echo method
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This method basically means that when you hear a word or a sentence
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don't rush to repeat it
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Focus on listening and let it echo in your brain
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Let the sound be absorbed by your brain
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then speak it out loud
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It's kind of like creating a sound memory in your brain
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If you want to know more about this method
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you can check out the TED Talk
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by Karen Chung on YouTube
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I will also put the link in the description box
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Then it's important to have a native speaker correct you from the beginning
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You can find a teacher
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an online language partner
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or a local in your area
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Starting with a native will save you so much trouble in the future
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It's easier to learn the right way
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than to undo all the mistakes you've embedded in yourself
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and correct them later
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For example
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there are certain words that I continue to mispronounce
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in English
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even though I know the correct pronunciation
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I realized it's much harder for me to change what I've embedded into my brain
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years ago
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If not you can't find a native speaker
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recording yourself
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and comparing your speech to native-speaker audio
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can also be an effective way to improve
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Look!
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Since I shoot most of my videos in English
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when I edit them
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I really notice sentence by sentence and even the tiny pronunciation mistakes
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Sometimes I compare them to native English YouTubers
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and I find out the problems with rhythm and tones;
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it really helps to improve
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My native English speaker followers also give me a lot of advice
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Thank you guys
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If you have followed my channel from the very beginning
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you must have noticed my changes in English
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I am still working on it
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It's never too late, guys
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If you can't find a native speaker
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record yourself and review them often
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Another thing I've learned from William is the importance of learning vocabulary
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from context starting from DAY 1
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We might know the classic way to learn vocabulary
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like a word in your native language followed by the translation
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in your target language for example
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apple in English苹果in Mandarin
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you will just repeat apple苹果
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苹果apple
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maybe you will learn from some apps
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or you might
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just try to memorize a list of a high frequency words
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but from Williams experience
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he learned words
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from conversation he didn't use any textbooks and take lessons
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instead
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he learned by chatting with his Chinese friends
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and collecting some random and
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easy words from the beginning
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not only he focused on learning new words
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he was also focused on sentence mining
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and learning entire expressions
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this is very different from our classic approach
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Generally speaking, I studied new expressions
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Rather than studying new words
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I think that studing words in context is better
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So, I’ll be taking the entire expression
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And then add it to Anki
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Or add to any other
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Spaced repetition and memorization software
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Right
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And you keep adding and reviewing according to this method
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And keep memorizing
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And then try as much as possible to actively use them
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And find new ways
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To use these words and expressions
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So, when I am watching TV
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I will always try to
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Find what i think would be
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useful expressions in daily life
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one of the other weakness when you are self studying
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is that there's no one to hold you accountable
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if you've been sitting in the comfort zone
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or just reviewing Anki words
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every day without changing method or increasing difficulty
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it voice down to the amount of effort you put
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into learning for example
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if the level you are studying has several hundred words
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it doesn't necessarily mean that
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you can use all seven hundred to create
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various sentence combinations
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the chances of all 700 words being compatible isn't high
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that's why you end up with a high word count
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but without the ability
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to speak and create
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a sentences i've met people who have a basic vocabulary base
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that say
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500 words but they can already
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communicate based on their practice in conversation
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and their
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understanding of the usage of words in different contexts
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some people have a more vocabulary like b2 to
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c 1 level but they can't form a proper sentence
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a more logical approach to learning a language is to keep
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those seven hundred words in might
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but extract them through watching a series
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listening to song
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or speaking with natives especially for higher levels
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instead of building blocks of vocabulary we
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can try to tear
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apart sentences and analyze the usage of words in context
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this is actually the only way to clearly
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understand the meaning of words
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and how they are used
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I think a lot of people make a mistake
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That is, they memorize the translation of words
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For example like
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Chinese people always give me and example
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abandon
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This is the first word in the English dictionary, right?
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Then they are trying to memorize from A to G right?
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It goes like this hahahaha
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So, they will be saying abandon (paoqi) abandon (paoqi)
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But this method of memorization
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In the daily life
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Is not effective at all for communication
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Is not effective at all for communication
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Because you only know
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What the word means in Chinese
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But you don’t know how to use it
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I really think that this method of memorization
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Is not effective at all
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focusing on building vocabulary in isolation
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will create a problem
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where you will have good listening skills and
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you will be able to pick up many words in isolation
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but as soon as you try to reply
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if you feel like a nightmare and your tongue will feel paralyzed
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so the next time
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you are starting think about the following learning expressions
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rather than single words
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breaking apart the sentences instead of building up words
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focusing on speaking more instead of just listening
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the next takeaway from William is
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his approach to building flashcards
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while we all love finding a good set of a flashcard to Saudi
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and there's nothing wrong with that
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but i realized that
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taking it to the next level by creating your own flashcards
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it helps with
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retention more than starting a premade set
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the process of creating a flashcard is self
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guarantees better retention
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because you are creating from context and experience
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since synonyms are part of language learning
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and one word could have several minutes
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depending on how
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is used simply learning words
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and meaning won't result in significant progress
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this is how i would advise you to create a flashcard
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you can pick a short podcast or video
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find a transcript
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break them down and create your own set
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where you include the new words
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within the context and sentences
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these is more focused study methods
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you could also watch a tv series that say
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you watch five minutes of a series every day
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and those five minutes
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are only dedicated to educational purpose
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not entertainment you can grab the subtitles
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and add these sentences to flashcards this approach helps you
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understand the logic of the language
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the culture idiom
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and how people think and speak if you assist you in
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becoming more
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natural with the language in long run
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another new idea
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i got from this conversation is the importance of output
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from the very beginning
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he told me that he started outputting from day one
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we have heard from language learning
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unities that we should first focus on inputs
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then output or ideas like input until the intermediate level
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then output but Williams experience very different
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and the results suggest that
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maybe it's time to reconsider the balance
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between input and output
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But I feel like many people doesn’t know
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right
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The importance of output
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Output itself is a method to help you understand better
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And easier the way words are used
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Because after you talk
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his is also considered
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Something that requires you to use your brain
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And it’s also considered a more deliberate method of studying
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Rather than passive
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Right
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So, I think this part is very important
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in addition I think that
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Learning a foreign language
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Is a process of creating memories
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So, if there’s a relationship and communication between people
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It’s easy to create memories
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That’s right so if you only listen and look
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You will probably make less memories
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what i have learned is that
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i try to visualize words and ideas in my brain
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so when i think about output and input
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i envision a loading bar
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that's a filling from both ends and eventually
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they you meet at the
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center to represent the balance between input and output
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without a proper input
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you can't have a meaningful output and without output
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the input is useless so even if we focus more on input
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at the beginning level
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which is natural
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start balancing it with output as soon as possible
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the earlier the better
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because both must be practiced at the same time
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even after
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all these years of studying languages and all the experience
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i've gathered i still meet people
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that astonish me and motivate me
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people that help me change the way i look at thing
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and see things that were
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right under my nose i still change an adapt
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trying to find new methods every day
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and i really like to share this journey with you
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if you ever feel
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like you are hitting a plateau
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it's time to review your method and evolve
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i hope this video was inspiring and helpful
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if you liked it don't forget to like
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share and subscribe and see you guys in the next one bye
