How to learn any language in six months | Chris Lonsdale | TEDxLingnanUniversity

05:32 - How to learn any language in six months
07:59 - Principle # 1: Focus on language content that is relevant to you
08:49 - Principle # 2: Use your new language as a tool to communicate from day 1
09:37 - Principle # 3: When you first understand the message you will unconsciously acquire the language
10:31 - Principle # 4: Physiological training
11:45 - Principle # 5: Psycho-physiological state matters
12:22 - Action # 1: Listen a lot (brain soaking)
12:43 - Action # 2: Focus on getting the meaning first (before the words)
13:31 - Action # 3: Start mixing
13:58 - Action # 4: Focus on the core
15:22 - Action # 5: Get a language parent
16:29 - Action # 6: Copy the face
17:13 - Action # 7: "Direct connect" to mental images

5 Principios:
07:59= #1 Enfocarte en el contenido relevante del lenguaje (dominar las herramientas de aprendizaje)
08:49= #2 Usar el lenguaje desde el primer día para comunicarte.
09:37= #3 Cuando entiendes el mensaje, inconscientemente adquieres el lenguaje.
10:31= #4 Entrenamiento fisiológico ( entender lo que escucho)
11:45= #5 Si estás triste, enfadado, disgustado, preocupado, no vas a aprender, punto.
7 acciones:
12:22= #1 Escucho mucho.
12:43= #2 Entender primero el significado antes que la palabra.
13:31= #3 Mezclen ( verbos, adjetivos, sustantivos aleatoriamente) como niños.
13:58= #4 Enfocarte en lo elemental ( 1000 palabras se usan en el 80% de la interacción diaria)
15:22= #5 Consigan un padre de idioma ( tutor de práctica y corrección).
16:29= #6 Imitar los gestos al pronunciar.
17:13= #7 Conexión directa con una imagen. (Relacionar)

I'm so glad I could understand 99% of what he said even though my mother tongue is not the english. And I've learned by my self :)

I'm brazilian and I've studied english by myself since I was little because I was always interested in this language. I think that's the key: to be interested and curious about the language. It makes everything easier.

I'm so happy that i can understood about 60 percent in speech. Ted is a good channel helps me improve my English. I really want to control my English skills in the near future. If i fortunately, maybe after 6 months i can do it well. But i think that studying English is a my mission in whole life. So, anyway i'll never give up. Trying my best and improving English day by day. My success is comming!

Tip for everyone learning a language:
No matter how many "how to learn a language" videos you have watched, language learning still requires hard work.

I guarantee you it is much more than 6 months to learn Korean from English. You need a lot more practice. It really depends on which languages you already know and which you want to learn. Also to what degree you want to be fluent

I’m English and moved to France when I was a kid. I remember being fluent in French in 6 months because as a kid, a lot of these principles were naturally in my environment: I went to all my school classes listening to french, I had a language parent - a teacher assigned to helping me learn after class, they showed me pictures with the words in french on them.
Hopefully I can use these again to learn Japanese! I started a few months ago and still have a very basic level, that said I think learning to write in Kanji may take longer than learning to speak

One of the strongest and smartest discourses I have heard is how to learn a language. He is not different from Einstein in his intelligence, but he is in the department of languages, not mathematics. Very, very, very strong advice. Thank you very much for understanding me and clarifying the question that was in my mind: How do children learn language fluently and we cannot understand it even after a while His speech and his thought are close to mine

This was so incredibly helpful. Never thought about learning a new language with these approaches. Well done!

05:32 - How to learn any language in six months
07:59 - Principle # 1: Focus on language content that is relevant to you
08:49 - Principle # 2: Use your new language as a tool to communicate from day 1
09:37 - Principle # 3: When you first understand the message you will unconsciously acquire the language
10:31 - Principle # 4: Physiological training
11:45 - Principle # 5: Psycho-physiological state matters
12:22 - Action # 1: Listen a lot (brain soaking)
12:43 - Action # 2: Focus on getting the meaning first (before the words)
13:31 - Action # 3: Start mixing
13:58 - Action # 4: Focus on the core
15:22 - Action # 5: Get a language parent
16:29 - Action # 6: Copy the face
17:13 - Action # 7: "Direct connect" to mental images

Thanks a lot Mr. Chris Lonsdale. Your speech is really inspiring and helpful. And Special thanks to TED talks team. You guys are doing an amazing job. Love from you from the core of my heart.

We just moved to Portugal and love to learn the language. For me these tips are crucial as I started by taking lessons last week. I noticed I've learned most at my gym where I come daily. The trainer is explaining everything in Portugese and then later translates it for me in English. I notice that I already understood a 60-70 percent before he translates. We are originally from the Netherlands so Dutch is our native language.

5 Principles:
07:59= #1 Focus on the relevant content of the language (master the learning tools)
08:49= #2 Use language from day one to communicate.
09:37= #3 When you understand the message, you unconsciously acquire the language.
10:31= #4 physiological training (understand what I hear)
11:45= #5 If you're sad, angry, upset, worried, you're not going to learn, period.
7 actions:
12:22= #1 I listen a lot.
12:43= #2 Understand the meaning first before the word.
13:31= #3 Shuffle (verbs, adjectives, nouns randomly) like children.
13:58= #4 Focus on the basics (1000 words are used in 80% of daily interaction)
15:22= #5 Get a language parent (practice and correction tutor).
16:29= #6 Imitate the gestures when pronouncing.
17:13= #7 Direct connection with an image. (Relate)

One of the most straightforward talks I've watched. Super helpful and very practical! Love it

To learn English ,guys, you should only do one thing. you should practice. Yaeh practice try to go back in time and imagine yourself as a baby.
How could you learn your mother language?
By listening, right
Listening and trying to speak.
try and make mistakes. it's fine, But in the end i promise you. you will do it

Acquiring a language through comprehensible input has been mainstream among researchers & serious language learners for 40 years. Great to see the method finally spreading to a broader audience!

I learned my second language, Spanish,in high school, and I applied a few things that this man is teaching, however he has more ideas which I think are very helpful. Now I am encouraged to work on another language, or improve 2 others that I have been introduced to.
I also want to suggest 2things that were helpful to me in learning Spanish; one was listening to music that I like in the new language because it has repetition and patterns. Also printed words, especially like store ads, catalogs, picture books, etc. You can learn a lot of useful written words from store ads because they have pictures and words together.

Love this! I just started learning a second language a few days ago, so I’m definitely going to try this approach. Thank you!

This is brilliant! I so appreciate your sharing. I received insight on why I've been able to learn German & Russian, and how to duplicate those successes in working on French & more. Worth more than a language class!

If you want to go to one precise point in this video here you go :
The 5 Principles of learning a new language :
7:59 #1 Focus on langugage content that is relevant to you
8:50 #2 Use your new language as a tool to communicate... from day 1
9:37 #3 When you first understand the message, you will unconsciously acquire the language
10:29 #4 Physiological training
11:38 #5 Psycho-physiological state matters
The 7 Actions for rapid language acquisition :
12:21 #1 Listen a lot
12:43 #2 Focus on getting the meaning first
13:29 #3 Start mixing
13:55 #4 Focus on the core
15:11 #5 Get a language parent
16:29 #6 Copy the face
17:12 #7 "Direct connect" to mental images

I’m currently 3 months into learning Spanish with an online tutor from Brazil on a weekly basis and I’ve already made some good progress so far, he’s definitely right, 6 months is doable if you’re interested and put in the work mentally

As a multilingual, I can assure you . Listening is the single best way for getting good at any language. Even if you don't do nothing, you just watch contents in that language with subtitles every day for 1-2-3 hours for 1 month. Take it from me, you could unconsciously learn a lot of that language.

I'm Polish speaking English since 1975 and Russian since 1977. Those were at school. In 1999 I've learnt Ukrainian in 3 months then in 2003 Spanish in 4 months, almost fluent. Just in the streets plus books. When it comes to communication the number goes up to 25 Indo-European languages. I never tried any others as I never needed them that much, although I'm interested in them just for fun.

Perfect explanation! I taught myself French and Dutch this way but you explained it better than I could.

*********5 Principles**********
1) Focus on language content that is relevant to you.
(7:59)
2) Use your new language as tool to communicate from day 1.
(8:50)
3) When you first understand the message your will unconsciously acquire the language.
(9:35)
4) It's physiological training. (speak, listen) (10:28)
5) Physiological state matters. (You're having fun, you're curious, relaxed) (11:37)
************Actions you should take to learn a language********
1) Listen a lot. (12:21)
2) Focus on getting the meaning first. (Learn by body language etc, patterns you already know). (12:43)
3) Start mixing. (13:28)
4) Focus on the core (Learn 1000 most used words, go for 3000 for pro level) (13:57)
5) Get a language parent. (15:20)
6) Copy the face. (16:29)
7) Direct connect to mental images. (connect sounds, images, feeling with words) (17:12)
8) Thumbs up? so others can see this.

La primera vez que vi esto en subtítulos al español, la segunda vez como 2 meses después con subtítulos en inglés y hoy mi tercera vez siendo 3 meses depués le entiendo al menos 98% de todo lo que dice, sí se puede carajo no renuncien. 🇲🇽

I had recognised these tips when i was in process of improving my English. However, this video also attracts my attention by its title. I mean, it's so hard for me to believe in "fluency inside 6 months" 😢. But after listening to his speech, It enhances my desire and my recognition for learning Eng and how to make my study better. So I really appreciate this!

Nice to see him use the term language"acquisition", instead of language "learning", As a elementary school teacher, we had a lot of exposure to Krashen's principles. This was a good recap with application to adults learning languages.

I took his advice to the heart! I learned Spanish so quickly 😍y’all need to take notes!!

He forgot one main thing. You should begin to THINK in the language you want to learn. In the process of thinking, which is essentially talking to yourself in your head, use the language you want to learn to express your thoughts. That is very important! When you want to do small talk with somebody in the language you want to learn, think beforehand what you will say, how and why. I found that very useful. I could quickly learn the phrases I needed to but being able to improvise (which small talk actually is) is much more challenging. If you think in your native language and try to simultaneously translate to the foreign language a story, you quickly run into big trouble. That is why you have to learn to think in the foreign language. Then you can become fluent. At least these are my 2 cents...

Thanks a lot to Mr. Chris Lonsdale, i really appreciated what you do, you even do the research, and then teach that to us, wow. 🙏🏼

Can’t believe that I knew 65 percent of this video without translation. So happy to learn “how to learn language in six months”. I really wish I can be a wise man such as this talker.

I love this man's passion. Beautiful stuff. I am currently learning Amharic (Ethiopian language) which is one of, if not the oldest language in the world. It's a beautiful language & my Ethiopian fiancé is teaching me.
She gives me 5 words per day that I write on index cards & now after watching this video I'm going to focus more on 10 verbs, 10 nouns, 10 adjectives, so that they can equal = 1,000 possible phrases for me to play with in Amharic.
I obviously want to learn Amharic out of & bc of love. Love is an amazing motivator.

Awesome! I plan on applying these very well laid out principles and actions to learn a new language! Thank you:)

From my experience, I can tell that he's absolutely right. I'm from Spain and I'm 16 years old, almost 17. I've been studying English since I was 3 years old at school, but it wasn't until almost two years ago when I became better at it unconsciously. I started watching videos and series in English, I read everyday in English many posts on Twitter and I was having fun with it. Nowadays, while my classmates are extremely struggling with it because they only study with books in class, I don't need to open a book because I've interiorized the grammar without noticing it, and also a lot of vocabulary. And that's the important and better part of language learning, just having fun while doing it.
Now I'm applying the same tips in my journey studying french, which I´ve been studying for 5 years but I'm still in a very basic level, and Korean.
Sorry for this long message but I wish you all a happy language learning!!

I think this was a great talk 🌼 thank you for putting things this well into words

Yo no hablo inglés muy bien, pero puedo entender cada palabra que dice este señor y creo que es increíble que pueda con palabras tan comunes y fáciles darse a entender!
Con razón su éxito en lenguas

Good Noon Prof.sir.. Really great message.. you are inspiring us and taught us learning the language is mundane way..

What often helped me in Mandarin was to decipher the system of its use and where nouns and verbs go, very similar system to Kanji, and how nouns play a role in the differences

My native language is Arabic, I can speak English and German and now I learn Chinese! After that I am going to learn Russian! Best of luck to all who learn languages.

Thank you! Very useful method! I appreciate your advice a lot. Going to learn a new language, that would be my fourth after Italian English and French. I’d love Greek and Jewish also Chinese and Tibetan

I'm glad someone is doing a talk on these principles. I apply this. It's real! You can't be lazy though. 🙂

I'm learning French, i'm so excited because in 2-3months i already understand a little bit
This summer, I realize that this video has empiric tools to multiply your learning and achieve to speak it fluently in half year.
29/08/21

I love seeing a presenter that’s so passionate about the topic.

I am fluent in 5 languages including some of the toughest ones like Mandarin, German , Japanese and currently picking up Spanish so I can tell you that these are absolutely true.

This is so true ! 14 years ago I arrived in Italy, without any clue of Italian language...
I don't say now I speak fluently, but without open any book, I learned like this guy telling us ! 😎

A passionate teacher that inspires any student.

I am learning Cypriot which is a hybrid mix of mainly Greek with a little Turkish plus the local Cypriot dialect ( which is not really written down ). Tough going but i am starting to make basic conversations by using these techniques....thank you !!!

Great! There is a lot of useful information on this channel! I'd like to recommend the excellent book by Yuriy Ivantsiv Polyglot Notes: Practical Tips for Learning a Foreign Language. This workshop contains many methods for learning a foreign language, showing how to use modern technology. The practicum will help everyone who is studying a foreign language on their own or with a teacher! Good luck to everyone! Thanks to the author for the work!

DUDE I PUT THIS AT 2X SPEED AND I CAN LEARN ANY LANGUAGE IN 3 MONTHS

Language learning does require hard work, however, sticking to some principles helps you learn faster. Apply them and feel the difference. By the way, thank you for the good Ppt, Sir!

I've been struggling with english for 30 years and I struggle with greek for two years now. If those advices are relevant, I'm pretty sure it will still take much more than six months before fluency... The easiest one was spanish, but it's quite close to french, my native language, so it was much easier to learn.

I arrived 35 years ago at Spain, didn't knew any word, so I searched every day 10 words in the diccionary words I could use and I needed, translated songs, and explained myself with what I knew and signs and sounds, I didn't care to much about grammar, I learned explaining myself very well in 6 months

you are changing my life, with your extraordinary input, thank yu so much. i thought the learning language is difficult, and worrying of not able to crack it out, but you made my day.

I love seeing how so many people have a desire to learn another language, how many already know multiple languages and those who are willing to help each other. This is what you call a beautiful comment thread that actually feels good to read.

Thank you so much that was helpful. I will start to implay this principles in my learning process. Also Lol you really encaruged me to learn drawing, because really I want to spend my free time doing something fun like drawing

It was great listening to you and u ‘ve a very clear explanation. Thank u so much 💐

I've found that listening to a known text, over and over again, in the target language, really helps.
(In my case, I've been listening to a chapter of the Bible in Hebrew.)
At first, I knew a few words, and not much else. But, as I already knew the text content in my own language, I found that, each time I listened to the audio, I was able to follow where we were in the narrative, even if I only understood a few words.
Now after a couple of months of listening through it once a day, I realize that I understand almost every single word of what I hear!
Just think of what listening to, and learning one chapter of an audio book, almost to the point of memorization will do.
It's a great stepping stone to build on.
Instead of cramming vocab, I've learnt how Hebrew is stringed together into sentences, and I know many phrases snd sentences by heart.
All of this at not much more effort on my part, than listening once a day.
* I've also started following along in the text, listening at 0.75 speed.
As with the listening part, I don't yet know the whole alphabet, byt have been able to follow along with my eyes on the text, and have been able to recognize words, and know where we are in the text.

The main error I see here is, "because I and someone else learned a new language in six months, then anyone can do it". However, this man is clearly very intelligent, and abilities vary. All one has to do to appreciate this is think about how some people who speak one's own native language can barely speak it and express themselves, yet others are extremely articulate.

I learned 1000 words in German in 3 months, but since I'm a perfectionist I've struggled to speak, because I'm scared it won't be perferct. This video inspired me to JUST DO IT. "It Doesn't have to be perfect; it just has to work!"

I'm so happy that I could understand the video, I study by myself for three years, yes its so much time but if I had focus I probably being speaking English fluently now, but I'm determined, I can understand a lot but I don't have confidence to speak and write. I'm writing now but I always think that i am writing everything wrong. Omg

I’m learning Russian, and it’s not as hard as I thought. I’m a week in, and already know most of the alphabet, days of the week, and even a few sentences. It’s not that bad, but very different pronunciations than English.

I come from a Chinese family and I've spend most of my childhood in China. I fully respect this man and his commitment to learning Chinese. That being said, the fact that he claims to be speaking Chinese at a native level cannot be further from the truth, I've seen videos of him speaking chinese and although his Chinese is pretty fluent, I don't think any native Chinese speaker would even consider him to be speaking Chinese at a native level

Learning a language is hard work; thank you for all the fulcrums and pulleys for making it easier! 👍

5 Principles.
7 Actions.
(Listed below)
Principle #1:
Focus on a language that is relevant to you.
Principle #2:
Use your new language as a tool to communicate *FROM DAY ONE!!!*
Principle #3:
When you *first* understand the *message* you unconsciously *acquire* the language.
Principle #4:
Physiological Training.
Principle #5:
Psychophysoilogical STATE matters. And learn to be tolerant of ambiguity.
7 Actions for Rapid Language Acquisition:
1. Active listening.
2. Focus on getting the meaning first (before the words).
3. Start mixing (10 verbs x 10 nouns x 10 adjectives = 1000 possible phrases).
4. focus on the core.
5. Get a "Language Parent"
5a. Works to understand what you are saying.
5b. Does not correct mistakes.
5c. Confirms understanding by using correct language.
5d. Uses words the learner knows.
6. Copy the face
7. "Direct Connect" to Mental Images

He said it all no more excuses 🙏 thank you so much he was very generous to share it with us

Excellent video! I've learnt a lot from it and look forward more your masterpieces .

the crazy thing is: my mother tongue is Portuguese but i had contact with english my whole life through internet and now i could understand 90% of this Ted talk, and now I'm using this video so I can learn a third language. Tysm TED

I'm really struggling to integrate into Swedish culture because of the language barrier. When people speak the language you don´t understand around you it is so frustrating and makes you feel numb and small.

Okay people, here is a long list of methods I've used to learn any new language. I hope this helps!
-text/talk to any chatbot in target language(also helps if you're shy to talk to ppl)
-Watch RU-cliprs in target language
-read in target language(books, children stories, news, poetry, quotes)
-listen to music in target language
-have conversation with yourself in target language
-change phone language
-watch cartoons in target language
-watch tv series/ movies in target language
-write stories in target language
-write songs/poetry in target language
-watch podcast in target language
-think in target language
-pretend to be the first humans to speak language
(E.g. look at the clouds and pretend you gave it the name)
-play games in target language
-associated words with feelings
-associate words with pictures in your head
-watch daily conversations in target language on youtube
-listen to songs in target language
-apply target language to hobbies/interests(e.g workout videos in french, guided meditation in Spanish, art DIY with German instructions)
-write journal in target language
-use analogies
-find interview/get to know me questions and answer in target language
-exercise to videos in target language
-watch tutorial videos of any kind in target language
-use captions in target language if available.
Good luck!!!

Well, i would say that you have to have a the right temperament to put all that learning into practice. For some people, the stress of having to "perform" in a new language could be a huge drawback. For example, you could write down all the things a person has to do to successfully stand up and speak to a large audience BUT wild horses couldn't drag a lot of people on to a stage in spite of all the that "know how" advice.

My mother tongue is Persian & while I was learning English many years ago, I imagined myself in different occasions: in a Cafe, restaurant, on the street with others, lecturing at university & just tried to talk. Believe me, it really works!

This is so true:) understanding how brain works, we could learn much more effectively and without forcing ourselves to study

Amei este proffesor/SLA
Ele é muito legal é divertido
Eu sou do Brasil bjs

Thank you 💗 a lot
Great video! absolutely practical and effective moreover geniusly simple.

I’ve been trying to learn Italian for almost a year now and still only know the basics. It’s hard when you don’t have anyone to speak the language to in order to know if you’re doing it correctly.

A passion takes the work away. You simply love what you are doing therefore you learn, as a result.
This is how I learned Punjabi.

My first language is Russian, I have learned English at school and now I am working on my Italian. I start learning it for the third time, I hope I'll manage to do it the near future ;) This video gave me ideas how I can improve my studying process and learn Italian in a short period of time

YEAH!!! I am gonna be fluent after six months studying. It's really useful advices. Thank you for this video!

Fantastic presentation, I would add one thing : work on content you like (soccer article, music lyrics, Netflix shows, etc). No boredom, it will keep you motivated during the process

When somebody mentions that they speak this or that foreign language, I always ask myself: How well? If one looks at the DLI (Defense Language Institute) or ACTFL (American College on the Teaching of Foreign Language) proficiency levels, there can be a vast array of competencies. These stretch through different levels of Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior, all the way up to Distinguished. To carry on a reasonable, but limited conversation, one needs to have their level at the upper Intermediate if not Advanced. So, in talking about skill, or knowing a language, it all depends what one means by "knowing". Nevertheless, a nice presentation.

Thanks a lot !!! This video gives confidence and motivation !!i have the goal to learn Arabic ! Well, hope 6 months later I will understand and speak the language 🤩🤩

It only begins at 7:00.
To summ up (attention-meaning-relevance-memory):
5 principles:
I. Focus on language content that is relevant to you.
II. Use your new language as a tool to communicate from day 1.
III. When you first understand the message, than you will unconscisously acquire the language.
IV. Physiological training
V. Psychological state matters
7 actions:
I. Listen a Lot
II. Focus on getting the meaning first
III. Start mixing (verbs, nouns, adjectives)
IV. 4 weeks:
Week 1 Tool Box: a) what is this?, b) how do you say?, c) I don't understand
Week 2-3 Pronouns, Nouns, Common Verbs, adjectives (you, that, give, me, hot)
Week 4 Glue words (although, therefore, but, even though, etc.)
V. Get a language parent.
VI. Copy the face.
VII. "Direct Conect" to mental images

Very useful and sensible talk, thank you!!!

I’m fluent in 4 languages, and I’m currently learning Spanish (I’m kinda decent lol) and Japanese (n3) but I’ll try to learn both languages with this method. I’ll be back at december and update

Según yo iba a empezar a prender coreano en este año (inicie el 1 de enero si mal no recuerdo) pero casi no sé la nada y no creo poder establecer una conversación
Pero tomare los consejos y me esforzare más 🧡
피이팅! 😋

This is exactly how my kid learned a second language. The first thing he learned was to tell people he didn't know it.

I've been learning English for 4 years and now I'm pretty fluent at it. Looking back at my language learning journey, I find these principles and actions so true. I use some of them during my journey and they really work to improve my English. The one thing that really stands out to me is that you should never strive for perfection. Just make mistakes and learn from them. What an amazing talk!

This has been in my “Watch Later” playlist for two years, and I’ve watched it twice now. Once when I first put it in the playlist and again around 6 months ago. I’m still on my first language.

Good lecture and very informative. Thank you

I’m going to do this with Spanish. I’ve been around the language most of my life but was embarrassed to speak because I was made fun of by others for not knowing something in said language whenever I decided to speak.. So 07/22/2021 - 01/22/2022 I should be fluent! Will come back to update. Wish me luck!

all amazing points, one thing i'd add aswell is to play the language while sleeping. I personally play audiobooks in different languages while I sleep. overall this is a habit to be developed in a positive way. I hope everyone is learning and growing on their journey xo

That moment when you listen video "how to learn any language" on your second language

One year from now, I was looking for a method to speak and understand fluent english . When I falled into this video . It's was too hard to understand . But now i feel more at my ease. Work and patience work in learning.

Beginning my journey in learning Spanish today, so lets see how it goes!

I do many of these naturally from experience. I still think though, that if you are thrown in another country you manage these things faster if you put effort into learning. Most people who don't learn the language of the country they are living in never really tried.

He told that talks with high enthusiasm. Thank you sir for your knowledge

My father is linguistic proffesor and every time he says : if you want to learn any language , your tongue has to touch to the native speakers tongue ...he meant get a partner and you will learn it quickly

Brilliant ! In Less 30 minutes Mr Lonsdale has covered almost everything !I
3000 words enough to communicate almost anything in English!
I remember from my School days two dictionaries . 1) Abridged Longsmans Dictionary 2) ELBS Advanced Learners Dictionary(Oxford)
Both written within 2500 words of vocabulary!