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

1:51 that is an incomplete map of China!

Learn new language is individually person

I completely agree with him about emersion not working unless you know some basics. My husband is arab and I lived with his family in the Middle East for the last 2 years. His family members don't speak English and as much as I tried to learn a few key words, I cannot follow their conversations about politics, the economy and next door gossip. It's frustrating.

After all, this theory is useful for learning European languages close to English, but not for learning Asian languages of different cultures.

i have tried to learn russian for two years. and im still terrible.. but i am now gonna change the way i am learning :)

This was great!!! Thanks so much for sharing

For some reason I thought this was going to be about JavaScript smh

Why is he shouting?

I have tried for 55 years to speak Spanish. I took 3 years in High School, 2 semesters in college and spend lots of time growing up in Texas where Spanish speakers abound. Then I took a job in Little Havana (Miami) for 4 years where NO ONE spoke English. I can read a little, speak & write a little, but can't comprehend much. And I'm certainly not fluent. I have come to believe that being able to learn a second language is a "knack" or "gift." Some people have it. Some don't. Even though I've pushed myself for decades, I don't have it.

I listened up to min 6:44 and did not learn ONE THING!!! I stopped the video at that point. He needs to take a course in not wasting time while lecturing.

Thanks ..awesome..

Great talk but he did not use the right map of China...

One curious thing happened to me when learning languages. The momment I started learning a third language, the second language fixed better in my mind. Then in the fourth language, the third language fixed better. I think I got to that because while learning the new language, I was comparing the grammar structures.

Any Polish person who could teach me Polish, I'd be happy to teach you English in return. What say?

i learned english in 2 years...

This is exactly the way Rosetta Stone is structured.

Ein sehr interessantes Video

I think a lot of people in the comment section are missing the point and were brainwashed into thinking there’s only one way to learn a language. Everything he says is 100% true! This is how I learned 2 foreign languages before I was 10 years old! You don’t need grammar, you don’t need to know how to read or write and it doesn’t need to be perfect! You just need to learn as many simple words as you can. You need to be able to say them and understand them! That’s it! Learn to speak like you learned to speak your first language! When you were 2 years old did you learn how to say “milk” or did your mom teach you grammar? Grammar came years after you learned how to speak!!! Then why the first class of a foreign language they teach you grammar and how to read and write when you can’t even say a single word in that language!! This is why everyone thinks it’s too difficult to learn a foreign language! It becomes too difficult too quickly!! And everyone gives up! When I first met my Russian girlfriend, I didn’t speak a word Russian! She thought I was a genius because within the first week I was speaking 35% of Russian! She asked me how many years did I learn Russian?? When I said that I never took a class in Russian she didn’t believed me! But shes very hot and that gave me the drive to learn Russian quickly!!
Here is a simple way to learn a language: learn as many words as you can (no grammar, no writing, no reading, nothing), and don’t be shy or be afraid that you are not saying things perfectly! It doesn’t matter! It’s the simple process of learning! Think in that language, watch movies in that language.
After you are able to speak the language, next step is learning to read, after that learning to write and the very last step is grammar!!! When first learning a new language, 95% of your Pronunciation will be wrong! But trying (and being wrong) is the first step to learning. You will perfect it as you go, the more times you say it the better it will be. You only have two goals: remember the word and for people to understand what you meant. If you can do those two simple things you already succeeded!

I wanted to hear him speak Chinese...

excellet

I've studied Latin for 7 years and can't speak Latin. Probably because I studied vocab lists and grammar, not the language.

In short: Limits are created by YOU, they don't exist in the Reality.
Great Talk.

Hahah the drawing example is so lame!!!
Wow he says. The second drawing still sucks donkey balls. Hahah

I had a serve head injury so I am relearning my native language American English and Spanish. It's hard because I live in the Philippines. Like Chris said its a work in progress, for me.

My English is very bad.. but I understand what he say.

If I was a teacher I would have a bag of oranges and everytime I see someone on their phone I would throw an orange at them

six months is way too long....in Guatemala people take a two week class in Spanish and then go out and learn the language, on their own....from a foundation, of one to two weeks one should have enough to go and learn the rest....

But... Latin though.
Probably nobody's first language is Latin.
And anyone who ever knows how to speak it are mostly very hard to get to teach you.

Look at that repeating texture of a carpet.
That's bad game design.

Ok but now I know what fire is in mandarin lmao

Learning language is not diffucult , but mastering language is very hard.

Can you apply this for guitar playing? Learning guitar in 6 months?

Anyone can explain to me that Why Vietnamese = 30% mandarin + 30% Cantonese ? Cos i don't even realize this in my country ???

Good video to learn but there is a problem of the Chinese map showed there,

man this is 5 years old video

It broke my heart when he said spouses can't be of help in the process of language learning 😐

the girl studied Dutch for years without success, then moved to Brazil and became fluent in Portuguese in 6 months? That only proves what an overcomplicated language Dutch is

It takes less than 2 Years to be fluent in any langage, for anyone. Period. Anyway kid in the world IS fluent at 3 (other than pathologic cases if course) .

Blah blah blah

There are FOUR PRINCIPLES!!!!
1. Focus on language content that is relevant to you.
2. Use your language as a tool to communicate from day 1.
3. When you understand the message you will acquire the
language unconsciously, i.e comprehensible input (Krashen, et al)
3. Language is not about accumulating a lot of knowledge but
is rather a type of physiological training.
5. Psycho-physiological state matters - you need to be
happy, relaxed, and most importantly, you need to be tolerant of ambiguity.
Don’t try to understand every detail as it will drive you crazy.
There are FOUR PRINCIPLES!!!!

If your face is hurting, you are doing it right. I can dig it.

Hmmmm 6 months? Yeah right...

Great job

It's probably better to get a language SIBLING than a parent, someone who's learning your native language. It can be super embarrassing to speak a new language to someone, but if you're both learning then it's easier. My grandfather got remarried to a native english speaker when I was little. She knew no swedish, I knew no english. We taught each other and now seven years later we're both fluent.

So , if you are worried/stressed/upset, you won't learn.
But his colleague learned to type Chinese in 48 ours because she was under incredible amounts of pressure.
Makes sense.

U talk too much can't u say simply listen first copy and speak

What
does he mean by Normal, infact what does he call normal, after all he studied phychology

shout out to the asian ladies in row 2! :)

why i dont think sesame street is a good tool for learning english - the puppets dont have natural lip movement.

12:08 dont go for perfect....love it!!

i am Chinese and i want to learn English. But my phone can't get FB, viber, whatsup these kind of application. Who want to learn Chinese and are good at English can make friends with me in WeChat. My WeChat id is xtyta1983. We can help each other , thx!

Best advice in a long time.

I learn to speak jiberesh in less than 1 sec.

Go check out Laoshu50500 on RU-clip, if you ever feel giving up on a language, he is the man to bring ya back

All is focused on face to face conversation, but that's only a little part of language use. For all situations you need 10 000 words, because the 2% (much more in that case) are likely to contain the words that are essential to the meaning. That's not icing, that's just what language is made for: to express ideas, not merely small talk.

The people in the back, can you hear me clearly? OK, SO I'LL YELL JUST TO MAKE SURE.

This was harder to understand than another language.

That is all rubbish. Why does he yell? He only want us to feel guilty. You certainly won't learn a language in 6 months, even people who learn lot of languages take at least two years, but you'll think it is your fault, and that'll be done. I was one of those who can't learn a language, regularly punished in school, and now I can speak four of them, all by myself. One of the key points is to never feel guilty, but be content with your progresses, whatever they are, that's already a big achievement.

My first language is brazilian portuguese and I have learned a few words in English. Nowadays I can watch videos without subtitles. The best way to learn anything is: Have a BIIGGG "WHY". When you truly NEED something, in the botton of your heart, you'll find the best way to get it! I learned some English because I wanted to be a great Poker Player and the best books and teachers about Pokers were in English. That was my BIG Why!

First step is to learn about English for Japanese like me.

I'd say that method would work for me too if I had his brain 😂

I thought the brain exploding joke was great.

I can speak English, Hindi, and Rajasthani.

The audience is terrible, so many great jokes spread around the presentation

"Fluency" in six months is not a realistic expectation. Growing up in a multilingual family, my parents and grandparents spoke a combined set of no less than a dozen different languages. Yet, English was the only common language in our home. I am "conversational" in 3 languages, one native, one via 4 years of formal study, and one by visits to a foreign country over the past decade. Everyone learns differently, and some people's brains are "wired" to learning languages more easily. The two most important aspects in learning anything are, *Desire*, and *Practice*.

Dutch Vanderlin? that you man?

Here's the best solution:
Replace your mouth, then put a Google translate mouth. Done.

Here's the best solution:
Replace your mouth, then put a Google translate mouth. Done.

If anyone wants to use a practical implementation of these methods (actually better) to learn Spanish, I strongly recommend looking up "Synergy Spanish" (Marcus Santamaria). It's the best possible method. i taught myself conversational Spanish in 4 weeks with minimal, casual "effort". Like French, I still find it hard to makes sense of the sounds when I hear foreign languages though.

This dude's accent throws me off so much lmao

Clickbait title, patronising delivery.

someone should help him and laugh lol

shut up and get to the point man, geez!

'Brain soaking' sounds a lot like 'immersion' to me... Bit of a contradiction there?

Fantastic.

I know English and Spanish... I can communicate with 80% of the world...
I win!

please speak in Thai

Vietnamese is 30% Mandarin, 30% Cantonese? I've been to Vietnam many times but I didn't understand 1%, I speak both Mandarin and Cantonese.

Hmoot ang meeg? Aaang hmif oot aaaang!!

Pero no se enoje 🤣

This is so interesting. I'm an English tutor and I incorporate a lot of this stuff, previously without really knowing why, and my style is exactly like that of a "Language Parent" but I never thought about it in that way before. I knew it was important to increase a learner's confidence by not interrupting every few words to correct mistakes, but this explanation makes a lot of sense. Hopefully I can put it to use learning Italian!

I hate long introductions , especially presented in a systematic manner. There is a huge lack of intuition here, nevertheless, the content still considerable.. i just want to suggest a more pedagogic efficient manner to present and explaining things ( subjectively i assume)

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It's proven to only take 30 days or less if you do it 10 hrs a day for 30 days
Eat sleep, and language. That's it. But you must take a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day.

What bars most of us from trying a new language? The guts the speak up.

Duolingo works for vocab, pimsleur is wonderful for the ear, pronunciation and it's easy to.use while driving. 100 days, done.

I would be curious how many languages does Chris fluently speak?

Mate, take a breath. :-)

10:32 #3 this mistake, fix the slide #4

Currently, I'm learning Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish, and Japanese at the same time. I don't know how, but learning 4 languages at the same time help me to memorize even better. I know that I won't be able to be fluent in any of the languages in 6 months but I am just learning for fun. Yes, I do embrace some of the techniques that this guy recommends and I feel that I am on the right track.

Take a breath dude, damn.

I am russian who lives 22 years in Spain so i speak russian and spanish like a native. I learned english by listening to music and translating the lyrics while reading them on the screen.

Wonderful! Thank you for making this video! 😄👌👍💙🙏

Someone knows which is the app for copying face? min 16:32 thanks guys

The main message of this video is, that he really thinks highly of himself. This talk was quite pointless. The 5 principles are just catch phrases - at least some of the 7 actions seem to be helpful.

Thank you...this video showed me that learning a language is not a impossible task. Today, after 3 months watching youtube videos, my Spanish is better every day.

I am a native German Speaker and i can speak english just because i wanted to see my favourite show in its original language.

He said immersion doesn't work, but I would totally disagree with that. What he said about those Chinese people who have been living in the US but failed to pick up English is already biased: a lot them are not really immersed in the English speaking community because their families, friends, and roommates all speak Chinese, and they definitely spend more time on Chinese social media than English speaking forums. As such, of course their progress in English learning wouldn't be obvious.

Language learning takes lots of years...u wont learn in 6 months.. language is long process...

I take it this includes sign language?