0:03 I learned to speak 56 languages and I
0:06 learned each of them in under 24 hours
0:08 yes I know that sounds a little bit
0:11 ridiculous uh even to me but it is true
0:13 and it's actually the only way that I
0:16 could have posted 56 videos of me
0:18 surprising strangers by speaking their
0:21 language in just the past few years so
0:23 I've talked about this before but I was
0:25 actually terrible at learning languages
0:27 in high school not that I got bad grades
0:29 my grades were actually pretty good but
0:31 I just couldn't speak any of these
0:32 languages that I studied I would just
0:34 see this language textbook full of super
0:36 intimidating alphabets and scripts and
0:39 charts and tones and just become totally
0:41 overwhelmed you know and having grown up
0:43 in a monolingual English speaking
0:45 environment in the United States I would
0:47 just think to myself man it's either
0:50 Geniuses or Dutch people who can
0:51 actually learn to speak multiple
0:53 languages and I really wanted to learn
0:56 to speak but I would try by reading the
0:58 textbook which is how I thought you were
1:00 supposed to learn a language but I would
1:01 inevitably get bogged down in the
1:03 details and then just totally give up
1:05 but after I moved to China and started
1:07 learning Chinese I started experimenting
1:08 more and more with language learning on
1:10 my YouTube channel and especially since
1:12 this became my full-time job a few years
1:14 ago I actually started getting really
1:16 really good at learning languages to the
1:19 point where now I consider myself
1:21 possibly the world's leading expert on
1:23 how to learn a language as quickly as
1:25 possible which by the way does not make
1:26 me anything close to the world's
1:28 greatest polyglot there are millions of
1:30 people in this world who have way better
1:32 language skills than I do but having
1:34 gone from zero to basic conversational
1:37 ability in 56 languages from every
1:38 continent on the planet except
1:40 Antarctica I do think that I at least
1:42 have some experience in the topic of how
1:43 to learn any language quickly see what I
1:45 realize the problem with typical
1:47 language textbooks is is that they
1:49 frontload too much you have to learn all
1:52 of these alphabets and weird scripts and
1:56 charts and tones and grammar before you
1:58 even get to chapter one there are these
2:00 incredibly boring and by themselves
2:02 useless things that you're somehow just
2:05 expected to memorize out of context and
2:06 it isn't just textbooks that teach like
2:08 this this forms the basis of our
2:10 language learning pedagogy in almost all
2:11 language learning classrooms around the
2:13 world and while I do understand the
2:15 desire to create a solid foundation I
2:17 think you end up instead intimidating
2:19 beginners and mystifying language
2:21 learning you make language learning feel
2:23 like calculus when it's actually much
2:25 easier than that don't get me wrong
2:27 learning languages is hard but as Matt
2:30 versus Japan likes to say it's hard in
2:33 the way that exercise is hard not in the
2:35 way that calculus is hard it does not
2:37 take a genius to go jogging but it does
2:39 take a certain level of commitment and
2:41 this textbook Style by the way is also
2:43 not the way that 99% of people who
2:46 actually succeed at learning languages
2:47 actually learn their languages a really
2:49 interesting example of this is that most
2:50 Chinese Teachers like to teach you
2:53 Chinese characters on day one before you
2:55 even learn to speak because that's how
2:56 they first learned Chinese when they
2:58 went to elementary school in China but
3:00 what this overlooks
3:02 is that on their first day of elementary
3:05 school in China they already spoke
3:07 fluent Mandarin which they had learned
3:10 word by word phrase by phrase sentence
3:13 by sentence from their parents and not
3:15 from a textbook so by the time they were
3:17 learning the writing system they already
3:20 understood the entire essence of
3:22 Mandarin speaking and grammar to which
3:24 they could then apply the characters so
3:27 my system has two parts and part one is
3:28 speaking practice the key to my rapid
3:30 language learning is spending 1 hour per
3:32 day speaking with online Tutors or
3:34 friends and I do this for 10 to 15
3:36 sessions spread out over 3 weeks the
3:38 focus here is purely on practical
3:40 conversation skills I start from zero
3:42 from very basic phrases and then we
3:44 gradually build up to more and more
3:46 complex conversations and I Do by the
3:47 way actually have a free list of phrases
3:49 that I like to use for this purpose
3:50 which you can also check out at the link
3:52 in the description I like to call them
3:54 my magic sentences and I think speaking
3:56 from the very beginning literally day
3:59 one um is crucial because it helps to
4:01 Dem the language and it also helps to
4:03 get over your fear of speaking which is
4:04 precisely the problem that I had in high
4:06 school when I would spend all this time
4:08 studying my textbooks and then when it
4:10 came to actually speak I would be
4:12 petrified I wouldn't know what to say
4:13 because I had never actually spoken
4:15 before everything I learned had come
4:17 from the textbook plus the direct
4:18 interaction with native speakers helps
4:20 me internalize the flow of the language
4:22 very quickly an analogy that I often use
4:23 is that trying to learn to speak a
4:26 language by reading a textbook is like
4:28 trying to learn to ride a bike by
4:29 reading a textbook you know you're just
4:32 just studying the physics of how your
4:34 feet move and the rotations at this
4:36 number of RPM create this movement so
4:38 all I have to do is turn left into the
4:40 torque and like we've all been
4:42 brainwashed by school into thinking
4:44 that's how it works but it's not and in
4:46 theory maybe it is possible to learn how
4:48 to ride a bike by reading a physics
4:51 textbook but practically speaking you do
4:53 need to understand the rhythm of bike
4:56 riding and actually ride a bike in order
4:58 to learn how to ride a bike now part two
5:01 of my method is sentence mining after
5:03 each speaking session I collect and
5:06 record key words phrases or sentences
5:10 from the session into Anki a free flash
5:13 card program to gradually memorize what
5:15 I just learned in the speaking session
5:17 over the next few weeks by the way
5:19 always front card English and back card
5:21 target language to make flashcards that
5:23 force you to actively recall the words
5:25 rather than just passively recognize him
5:27 and I only put sentences whose grammar I
5:29 fully understand into Ani so so I have
5:32 to learn the grammar from my teacher
5:33 before I can go and memorize the
5:35 sentences and so this means that I'm not
5:37 just wrote memorizing sentences I'm
5:39 actually memorizing grammar as well by
5:41 natural osmosis what I'm definitely not
5:44 doing which I used to do in high school
5:47 all the time is memorize big conjugation
5:51 charts or memorize alphabets or memorize
5:53 tone rules or things like that and so as
5:56 I memorize these sentences I'm also
5:57 naturally memorizing the grammar of the
6:00 language as I said before the grammar of
6:02 most languages isn't too hard hard as in
6:05 calculus that this is really so
6:07 difficult um with the possible exception
6:10 of some Native American languages which
6:13 you know so for each language that I
6:15 study over these 15 sessions I end up
6:18 developing an decks you know that
6:21 contain anywhere from 50 to 100 cards
6:25 and that really is all you need to know
6:28 in order to have basic conversations in
6:30 any language about 50 to 100 words and
6:32 phrases and yes you also pick up other
6:34 things by osmosis from your speaking
6:36 sessions because you're continually
6:39 practicing as well so the anid deck
6:40 doesn't form the entire basis of what
6:43 you learn but it forms much of the key
6:46 grammar and vocabulary that you'll need
6:47 to actually have conversations in your
6:49 language and the phrases in the anid de
6:53 are all things that are natural and
6:55 immediately useful to me and I'm
6:56 typically not learning stuff that I
6:58 don't think I'll need to use a lot of
7:00 textbooks will start you out by focusing
7:03 on color and Direction words and I find
7:06 personally I never use those so why
7:07 would I learn those at the beginning as
7:09 the first things that I ever learned and
7:12 again I don't learn the alphabet or the
7:14 script in the very beginning either I
7:16 actually write everything into Anie the
7:18 way that the word or the phrase or the
7:21 sentence sounds to me rather than how
7:23 it's written in its native script which
7:25 I find actually helps me learn way
7:28 faster because I'm not so worried about
7:31 like what's sounds the CH make in this
7:33 language or like what does this weird
7:36 squiggle mean I don't really care I just
7:38 write what it sounds like to me I'll be
7:40 honest I do have very good auditory
7:42 memory but I do think you can do this
7:44 even if your auditory memory is not so
7:46 great you can actually put audio samples
7:48 into Anki as well so every time you load
7:50 up the card you get an immediate sound
7:52 cue for what it sounds like and you can
7:54 play the audio from native speaker so if
7:55 you do it like that you don't have to
7:56 worry that you're not perfectly
7:58 remembering the sound either I found
7:59 that learning the alphabet can come
8:01 later once I have an actual
8:04 conversational level um or never you
8:06 know because if you're not interested in
8:07 becoming literate in the language you're
8:09 studying you might not be interested in
8:10 becoming literate that's your choice you
8:13 know you can completely ignore the
8:14 alphabet or the script of the language
8:17 and so this way this way I'm not bogged
8:18 down in the task of learning a new
8:21 script from day one I do these anky reps
8:23 every day so I'm going to show you right
8:25 now let's load up um the language I'm
8:28 currently learning which is Scottish
8:34 glic so we have cows uh that's
8:37 NA okay good what whiskey do you like
8:39 like um
8:46 J it something like that right
8:49 J okay good that was good and you see
8:51 I'm learning things that both are
8:54 culturally relevant but um also like
8:56 these basic phrases you know sentences
9:01 like do you like or cheers or basic
9:04 nouns like cow things I can actually use
9:06 to build more complex conversations off
9:10 of Scotland is beautiful um
9:13 um
9:15 ala ala Bria and you can see when I'm
9:18 learning these sentences and phrases I'm
9:19 not just memorizing sentences either I
9:22 mean I am memorizing sentences but these
9:24 are sentences that you know can be
9:27 modified and changed and a sentence like
9:29 Scotland is beautiful is the same thing
9:33 as a sentence like the Apple is tasty
9:35 you know they work the same way so if
9:38 you memorize Scotland is beautiful um
9:41 and you also know the words apple and
9:43 tasty then boom you have two sentences
9:45 there right you didn't have to memorize
9:47 two sentences you just needed to
9:49 memorize one to get that grammar and so
9:52 space repetition systems like Anki are
9:53 an absolute GameChanger because they
9:55 help me review these phrases at
9:58 intervals optimized for memory retention
10:00 so by reviewing my an for just a few
10:02 minutes every day I actually ensure that
10:04 these phrases stick in my long-term
10:06 memory ready to be whipped out in any
10:08 conversation though because I'm lazy I
10:10 actually do archive the decks of
10:13 languages that I'm not actively studying
10:14 meaning that I for get languages that
10:16 I've learned in the past and so right
10:18 now I can't speak anything like 56
10:20 languages at the same time so that's
10:22 basically it speak from day one use
10:24 sentence mining to record the key wordss
10:26 and phrases and then memorize everything
10:28 with space repetition software like anky
10:29 this approach has helped me learn
10:31 languages as quickly as possible while
10:34 ensuring that I don't get lost in
10:36 translation so if you're interested in
10:37 learning more about how I learn
10:38 languages make sure to check out my
10:40 master class the link in the description
10:41 below and now you can get speaking
10:43 practice with an AI tutor at my new
