how to start writing in another language

00:13:44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqmQ__I2drg

Summary

TLDRIn this video, the speaker explores the crucial role writing plays in enhancing communication skills. They explain that writing not only helps improve speaking fluency but also builds confidence by providing a safe space to experiment with language. The speaker details their personal writing process, which involves three main phases: sentence building for beginners, journaling for emotional engagement, and a random linkage method to creatively connect new vocabulary through storytelling. The speaker notes that writing encourages error recognition and aids in structuring thoughts, ultimately benefiting overall language learning. They emphasize that the journey of improving writing is gradual, necessitating patience yet yielding significant rewards in communication abilities.

Takeaways

  • 🖊️ Writing enhances speaking fluency by strengthening language processing areas in the brain.
  • 📖 Journaling provides emotional connection and reinforces daily vocabulary.
  • 🔗 The random linkage method involves creating stories to connect new words.
  • ✍️ Writing allows for the identification and correction of mistakes.
  • 🛠️ Use digital tools or notebooks to capture new words effectively.
  • 🚶‍♂️ Start small and gradually increase the complexity of your writing tasks.
  • 🎨 Incorporate creativity in writing to make the process enjoyable.
  • ⏳ Improvement in writing takes time and consistent effort.
  • 💡 Combining different writing methods can enhance learning.
  • 🙌 Embrace the slow and steady process of writing to improve language skills.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    In the video, the speaker elaborates on the importance of writing and its benefits, particularly how it strengthens speaking skills due to shared brain activity. Writing provides a safe space to practice language without the immediate pressure of speaking, helping build confidence and allowing individuals to identify mistakes they might overlook during conversation. By engaging in writing, one can organize thoughts more clearly and improve overall communication skills. The speaker emphasizes their personal struggle with writing and shares their method for addressing this challenge, illustrating how writing can be a powerful tool for learning and self-expression.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:13:44

    The speaker outlines a structured writing process divided into three phases: sentence building, journaling, and the random linkage method. In sentence building, beginners capture new words to form simple sentences, gradually increasing complexity. Journaling connects writing to personal experiences while reinforcing vocabulary. The random linkage method encourages creativity by linking unrelated words into stories, enhancing memory retention through contextual association. The speaker encourages flexibility in adopting these methods, emphasizing the value of effort in improving language skills over time, ultimately linking writing to enhanced speaking proficiency.

Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • How does writing improve speaking skills?

    Writing triggers the same brain areas as speaking, reinforcing language skills.

  • What is the significance of journaling?

    Journaling builds an emotional connection to writing and reinforces vocabulary used in daily life.

  • What is the random linkage method?

    It's a technique where you link new words by creating narratives or stories using those words.

  • How can I capture new words effectively?

    Use digital tools or physical notes to write down new words as you learn them.

  • What if I make mistakes while writing?

    Writing allows you to see and correct your mistakes, which helps you learn.

  • Is it necessary to follow a strict writing structure?

    No, you can adjust writing techniques based on your level and comfort.

  • How long does it take to improve my writing?

    Improving writing requires effort and consistency, and the process is gradual.

  • Can technology aid in improving my writing?

    Yes, tools like ChatGPT can help correct your writing and provide feedback.

  • Should I combine different writing methods?

    Yes, you can mix methods like journaling with structured exercises to enhance learning.

  • How important is creativity in writing?

    Creativity enhances writing enjoyment and helps retain language skills.

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Subtitles
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  • 00:00:00
    in my previous video I talked about the
  • 00:00:03
    importance of writing but I didn't
  • 00:00:05
    really dive deep into it and I thought
  • 00:00:07
    it would be helpful to just talk a bit
  • 00:00:09
    more about my writing process first of
  • 00:00:11
    all I wanted to lay down some reasons as
  • 00:00:15
    to why I feel so strongly about writing
  • 00:00:19
    and as to why it has helped me so much
  • 00:00:22
    and the first reason is that I didn't
  • 00:00:24
    know this but writing triggers speaking
  • 00:00:28
    because apparently they share
  • 00:00:30
    overlapping regions in the brain so
  • 00:00:33
    practicing one can reinforce the other
  • 00:00:36
    one Speaking has different motor skills
  • 00:00:41
    but writing just activates this language
  • 00:00:45
    processing areas that help you with
  • 00:00:47
    forming sentences and generating words
  • 00:00:50
    and when you write you're basically
  • 00:00:52
    working out that muscle so when you're
  • 00:00:54
    having a conversation that muscle is
  • 00:00:57
    already like so strong that you you're
  • 00:01:00
    able to be more fluent and more natural
  • 00:01:02
    thanks to that this takes me to my next
  • 00:01:05
    point which is that this really helps
  • 00:01:07
    with building confidence cuz I feel like
  • 00:01:10
    people really fear
  • 00:01:13
    speaking not because of speaking per se
  • 00:01:16
    with another person which may happen if
  • 00:01:18
    you're an introvert or you're not very
  • 00:01:21
    very good with social skills but I feel
  • 00:01:23
    like it's more the fact of making
  • 00:01:26
    mistakes in having people hearing you um
  • 00:01:29
    make those mistakes in in real time and
  • 00:01:32
    for me writing offers this safe
  • 00:01:36
    territory um for you to experiment with
  • 00:01:39
    the language it's like a rehearsal for
  • 00:01:41
    real life situations and the more you
  • 00:01:44
    write the more confidently you will
  • 00:01:47
    communicate in a in a spoken
  • 00:01:49
    conversation I guess and the next reason
  • 00:01:52
    is that you get to see your mistakes on
  • 00:01:55
    paper cuz I feel like with speaking
  • 00:01:57
    unless you have someone pointing
  • 00:02:00
    out the mistake you keep the mistakes
  • 00:02:02
    you keep making all the time you're
  • 00:02:04
    pretty much likely to forget them or
  • 00:02:07
    Overlook them but with writing it's like
  • 00:02:09
    it's in front of you like you have your
  • 00:02:11
    mistakes on a paper and for me that's
  • 00:02:13
    very helpful with identifying my
  • 00:02:16
    weaknesses and knowing what I need to
  • 00:02:18
    work on and lastly I feel like writing
  • 00:02:21
    really helps you structure your thoughts
  • 00:02:24
    and structuring your thoughts and
  • 00:02:25
    organizing your ideas really help you
  • 00:02:29
    with
  • 00:02:30
    making your message more clear and more
  • 00:02:33
    and being more fluent when it comes to
  • 00:02:36
    uh debating about debating about a topic
  • 00:02:39
    or uh just conversating and I say this
  • 00:02:42
    because for the longest time I've
  • 00:02:45
    avoided writing I know some people fear
  • 00:02:47
    speaking but I really my my main fear
  • 00:02:51
    was always writing it was always my my
  • 00:02:53
    weakest skill in whatever language even
  • 00:02:56
    in my native one I'm I'm pretty bad at
  • 00:02:58
    writing and then ironically I really
  • 00:03:01
    need writing for learning like whatever
  • 00:03:04
    it is I'm learning I really need to have
  • 00:03:06
    pen and paper with me and when it came
  • 00:03:08
    to learning new words like when I was
  • 00:03:10
    learning English I was I wasn't really
  • 00:03:12
    into language learning or like I didn't
  • 00:03:15
    really have effective learning methods
  • 00:03:18
    so in order to memorize new words um I
  • 00:03:21
    just did what I knew which was to
  • 00:03:23
    repeatedly write down new words and just
  • 00:03:28
    repeatedly do that until I kind of
  • 00:03:30
    internalized them and memorized them and
  • 00:03:32
    eventually I got really tired of that
  • 00:03:35
    and really bored and I decided to get a
  • 00:03:37
    bit more creative and I guess over the
  • 00:03:40
    years um I've developed a a pretty good
  • 00:03:43
    writing structure or writing model and I
  • 00:03:47
    use I've used this for learning English
  • 00:03:49
    then for learning French and now I'm
  • 00:03:51
    using it for Hungarian and this
  • 00:03:53
    structure has different phases because
  • 00:03:56
    for me it was very helpful and effective
  • 00:03:58
    to have have a different writing process
  • 00:04:02
    for different uh language levels and
  • 00:04:05
    it's a very simple writing
  • 00:04:11
    structure so the model is divided in
  • 00:04:14
    three main phases and the first phase is
  • 00:04:18
    sentence building and here you're
  • 00:04:21
    basically a beginner like you just
  • 00:04:22
    started learning the the language you
  • 00:04:25
    first want to really work on having a an
  • 00:04:28
    effective capturing tool you need to be
  • 00:04:32
    able to capture new words in a very
  • 00:04:35
    effective way and you can do this with a
  • 00:04:38
    digital uh tool like I have my phone
  • 00:04:42
    here I'm going to show you my um
  • 00:04:44
    Hungarian list cuz I'm I'm honestly
  • 00:04:47
    proud of
  • 00:04:50
    it I don't know if you can see
  • 00:04:53
    it or you can go also with a physical
  • 00:04:57
    note or you can do both as I'm doing and
  • 00:05:00
    also cuz like for the longest time I've
  • 00:05:02
    been overthinking so much this like I
  • 00:05:06
    love handwriting and I love having this
  • 00:05:08
    little notebook but I really wanted to
  • 00:05:11
    have my words in the same um I guess in
  • 00:05:15
    the same box honestly if you really like
  • 00:05:18
    writing why wouldn't you do that CU at
  • 00:05:20
    the end of the day it's like what do you
  • 00:05:22
    enjoy more about learning so I I decided
  • 00:05:24
    that I I'm going to go with both of them
  • 00:05:26
    like I have my anky here and my my notes
  • 00:05:29
    here and Ani by the way is an
  • 00:05:31
    application for um for making flashcards
  • 00:05:35
    and it's very useful and I just go
  • 00:05:36
    through both of them when I do my
  • 00:05:38
    revision and that's all like you don't
  • 00:05:40
    need to over complicate things and once
  • 00:05:43
    you have that capturing Tool uh play
  • 00:05:46
    with the words try to create your own
  • 00:05:49
    sentences and I would suggest you really
  • 00:05:52
    create simple and practical things that
  • 00:05:55
    you can actually use and also try to
  • 00:05:57
    make a challenge out of it like say if
  • 00:05:59
    every morning I'm going to try to write
  • 00:06:01
    5 to 10 sentences again I really
  • 00:06:04
    emphasize the the importance of starting
  • 00:06:06
    really small and really simple and then
  • 00:06:09
    gradually go for longer longer sentences
  • 00:06:12
    and more sophisticated ones start
  • 00:06:24
    with and the next phase is journaling it
  • 00:06:27
    gets a bit more complicated but just
  • 00:06:30
    a tiny bit it's just a step forward cuz
  • 00:06:33
    now you're building sentences but you're
  • 00:06:36
    building sentences in the context of one
  • 00:06:39
    of your days and here you're somewhere
  • 00:06:42
    in between a beginner and an almost
  • 00:06:45
    intermediate student like you're you're
  • 00:06:48
    in between those two and I feel like
  • 00:06:50
    journaling is journaling is such a
  • 00:06:52
    powerful tool for two main reasons first
  • 00:06:54
    of all because I feel like you have an
  • 00:06:57
    emotional connection to what you're
  • 00:06:59
    writing because it's stuff that happened
  • 00:07:01
    to you and then because it's a journal
  • 00:07:04
    and you should do it every day
  • 00:07:07
    cuz it's a nice practice to integrate
  • 00:07:10
    into your daily routine and also like
  • 00:07:12
    75% of our days are pretty much the same
  • 00:07:16
    unless you have a very exciting life and
  • 00:07:18
    you're essentially reinforcing the
  • 00:07:21
    vocabulary that you're going to need
  • 00:07:23
    when discussing about yourself and then
  • 00:07:25
    the last phase is something that I
  • 00:07:27
    called the random linkage method face
  • 00:07:30
    and this is just a just a fancy name
  • 00:07:32
    that I coined for a very simple method
  • 00:07:35
    and it goes like this so you have the
  • 00:07:38
    list of new words that you've been
  • 00:07:40
    building up over time and here you will
  • 00:07:43
    have to choose like between three and
  • 00:07:45
    five or even more words and you have to
  • 00:07:48
    link them somehow like it doesn't matter
  • 00:07:51
    if they're words that have nothing to do
  • 00:07:53
    in between them like I think it's even
  • 00:07:55
    better and you have to link them either
  • 00:07:57
    through creating a story or just writing
  • 00:08:01
    some narrative uh in where you can
  • 00:08:04
    actually use all of these words I think
  • 00:08:06
    stories are really powerful because
  • 00:08:09
    stories are really sticky to the human
  • 00:08:12
    brain like everything that happens to us
  • 00:08:14
    and the way we understand the world is
  • 00:08:17
    through stories like religions and other
  • 00:08:21
    uh schools of thought are based on
  • 00:08:24
    stories I guess we're we're very good at
  • 00:08:28
    having actors in our lives and having a
  • 00:08:31
    lot of drama so the more craziness and
  • 00:08:33
    emotion you put into your stories or
  • 00:08:36
    narratives in order to link the random
  • 00:08:39
    words the better I also write a lot of
  • 00:08:42
    stuff that's pretty cringe but that's
  • 00:08:44
    not the point of the the method and
  • 00:08:46
    honestly this method is not really a
  • 00:08:49
    memorization method unless you make it
  • 00:08:52
    one for me it was just a tool to get rid
  • 00:08:55
    of this fear around writing and it it's
  • 00:09:00
    just my way of making writing fun
  • 00:09:02
    because now like I would never thought
  • 00:09:04
    that I would be so excited to just write
  • 00:09:07
    about different stuff and also is a way
  • 00:09:10
    for me to use new words in context in
  • 00:09:12
    order to see if I understand their
  • 00:09:15
    meaning or not and if you really want to
  • 00:09:19
    make it a
  • 00:09:20
    memorization technique I would suggest
  • 00:09:22
    you go back to your texts like revise
  • 00:09:25
    them as much as you can and you will
  • 00:09:27
    also think like okay then why don't
  • 00:09:30
    I just memorize them and I don't have to
  • 00:09:31
    go through all the writing process well
  • 00:09:34
    beyond of the um already mentioned
  • 00:09:37
    reasons like the using in context and
  • 00:09:39
    like just getting rid of the fear of
  • 00:09:40
    writing to me an interes thing an
  • 00:09:43
    interesting thing that happened is that
  • 00:09:45
    now whenever I remember one word I
  • 00:09:48
    remember also the rest of the words um
  • 00:09:52
    that were in the random linkage uh text
  • 00:09:56
    so if I wrote a story with five
  • 00:09:59
    different random words just remembering
  • 00:10:02
    one would trigger remembering the rest
  • 00:10:04
    of them so that's why I think it's so
  • 00:10:06
    effective and powerful and of course
  • 00:10:08
    ideally you would want to have your
  • 00:10:09
    writings corrected and if you have a
  • 00:10:11
    teacher then that's amazing uh but if
  • 00:10:13
    you're self-studying like me I think
  • 00:10:16
    chat chat GPT chat g chat GPT yeah I
  • 00:10:20
    think chat GPT is really a good option
  • 00:10:22
    for that I just prompt him into like
  • 00:10:25
    okay um you're going to be my writing
  • 00:10:27
    teacher now or my my English teach
  • 00:10:29
    t-shirt now I need you to correct this
  • 00:10:31
    and that in helping me improve but don't
  • 00:10:34
    change the meaning of the text blah blah
  • 00:10:36
    blah I also really love handw writing
  • 00:10:38
    like this is the text where I've started
  • 00:10:41
    using the random linkage
  • 00:10:44
    method wait I don't know if you can
  • 00:10:49
    see and yeah I really enjoy the process
  • 00:10:52
    of just like
  • 00:10:54
    feeling paper and feel like feeling pen
  • 00:10:57
    on paper so it sucks that I have to
  • 00:11:00
    digitalize the notes um and then having
  • 00:11:04
    them corrected but like it's something
  • 00:11:06
    that I think it's worth it because of
  • 00:11:09
    all the joy I get out of this so just
  • 00:11:11
    find your meth if you if you prefer just
  • 00:11:13
    um writing on your laptop then by all
  • 00:11:16
    means please do so and yeah uh that's
  • 00:11:19
    pretty much
  • 00:11:21
    it um I was editing and I realized I
  • 00:11:23
    forgot to mention a couple of things
  • 00:11:25
    that I think are important and first of
  • 00:11:27
    all I did a little drawing because um
  • 00:11:30
    well I don't know what I'm going to put
  • 00:11:31
    it but uh sometimes I don't I feel like
  • 00:11:34
    I don't I cannot yet express myself to
  • 00:11:36
    the point that I will love to and I
  • 00:11:37
    think a visual always helps and I wanted
  • 00:11:39
    to say that uh you don't have to rigidly
  • 00:11:41
    follow this structure like this like
  • 00:11:44
    maybe you're a beginner but you want to
  • 00:11:45
    try the random linkage method so you
  • 00:11:47
    just grab some words and you try to link
  • 00:11:50
    them by creating a story uh I personally
  • 00:11:52
    find that very difficult and I feel like
  • 00:11:55
    that can de demotivate me because
  • 00:11:57
    writing in itself it's like very
  • 00:11:59
    difficult especially at the beginning
  • 00:12:00
    but maybe you're a beginner you want to
  • 00:12:02
    try like journaling so please do so cuz
  • 00:12:05
    I think that's pretty doable and I feel
  • 00:12:06
    like you can even combine these things
  • 00:12:08
    like even if you're in an advanced level
  • 00:12:11
    for example let's say one day in the
  • 00:12:13
    morning you decide to build some very
  • 00:12:16
    sophisticated and advanced level phrases
  • 00:12:20
    then after lunch you decide to journal
  • 00:12:22
    um but in a very like imagining that
  • 00:12:25
    you're a poet or a writer like putting
  • 00:12:28
    your into the shoes of that person and
  • 00:12:30
    just trying to really express yourself
  • 00:12:33
    and maybe after dinner you can do a
  • 00:12:34
    random linkage um exercise where you use
  • 00:12:38
    the phrases that you crafted in the
  • 00:12:40
    morning I don't know you can you can
  • 00:12:42
    play with this it's not a rigid
  • 00:12:43
    structure to follow obviously you can
  • 00:12:45
    adjust it to your goals and to your
  • 00:12:47
    level and lastly I wanted to mention
  • 00:12:49
    that I know it's not um an easy fix for
  • 00:12:53
    your language skills like I know it
  • 00:12:54
    demands effort and I know it's a slow
  • 00:12:57
    process that's why I think it's so
  • 00:12:58
    effective and I know we're not used to
  • 00:13:00
    this in today's society like effort and
  • 00:13:03
    slowness uh I'm also guilty of this
  • 00:13:05
    because I'm very impatient but the
  • 00:13:07
    sooner you start the easier it gets over
  • 00:13:09
    time I can promise you that and honestly
  • 00:13:11
    the impact writing has had on my
  • 00:13:13
    speaking and comprehension skills is
  • 00:13:16
    100% worth it so I really want to
  • 00:13:18
    encourage you to U tap into your
  • 00:13:21
    creativity and yeah I think I think that
  • 00:13:24
    was all I hope this helped you somehow I
  • 00:13:28
    hope you can help someone and I will see
  • 00:13:30
    you in the next one
  • 00:13:39
    [Music]
Tags
  • writing
  • language learning
  • communication
  • confidence
  • journaling
  • sentence building
  • random linkage method
  • vocabulary
  • language skills
  • personal growth