Learn Languages with Steve Kaufmann

🚪 Languages can unlock doors you never even knew existed, but you first have to reach out and turn the handle. The doors won't open themselves. Don't overthink decisions. Just take action and see where the language learning adventure leads you! I've made a number of pivotal decisions that completely changed the trajectory of my life, languages, and career... Hopping on a Europe-bound ship at age 19. Switching my major to Political Science and then studying in Paris. Moving to Hong Kong to learn Mandarin in the late 1960s. I could have easily overthought these decisions and decided otherwise. But the key is that I made a decision and took action. Just do it!

❓What is the most difficult language to learn? The short answer? It depends! The difficulty of a language depends on a number of critical factors, 6 of which I share in this video. I also explain why certain languages tend to be more difficult than others, and why ONE language has been particularly challenging for me. Later in the video, I am joined by the Chinese polyglot Zoe from @zoe.languages. It turns out that she has ALSO found this same language to be the most difficult one out of the 6 she has learned, despite our different native languages...

I’ve learned 20 languages so far, and I usually enjoy the process. But Korean has been a real struggle for me. In this video, I explain why it’s been such a challenge and where I went wrong.

📚 Elon Musk allegedly reads 2 books a DAY! That's over 37 million words a year! (For comparison, the average person finishes only 14 books a YEAR.)

Some people argue that you must work with a teacher to get fluent in a language, others claim that teachers are unnecessary and that you can learn on your own. So which is correct? Like most things in language learning (and life!) the answer isn’t black and white.

I have been learning languages for over 50 years. In this time there is one development in particular that has allowed me to learn more efficiently and given me access to new worlds of meaningful and interesting content: the MP3.

I like analogies, they help us understand. An analogy I thought of recently was how our knowledge of a language is like an iceberg: what we can produce or think we know at any given moment is just the tip of the iceberg and there is deep familiarity with the language underneath.

When do we know a word? Who cares? Just keep pumping words into your brain. Keep on actively pursuing words. That’s what we measure at LingQ. How many words you have grabbed and thrown into your brain. How many stick or when they stick is largely out of our control.

Language immersion doesn’t depend so much on where you are, although it can. It depends more on your attitude towards the language you are learning, and your actions as a learner.

Some people are afraid to speak in their target language. It needn’t happen. We can prepare for speaking. We can recognize speaking as a part of our learning process, not a performance to be judged by others.