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Steve's Language Learning Tips, Learning Languages in the Moment

Learning Languages in the Moment

Hi there. Hopefully, this is going. Let me see. Yeah. I can't really see too well because the sun is in my face. Today, I want to talk about learning languages in the moment. This is something that applies to so many things that we do in life. Very often, we're looking forward to what's going to happen tomorrow or we have goals of what we want to achieve, but sometimes we just have to focus on what we're enjoying right now.

By the way, if you enjoy these videos, please subscribe. You can click on the little bell in order to get notification. And if you want to learn languages the way I do, please join us at LingQ.

I was thinking of this as I was driving up to Whistler, Whistler, B.C., which is where I am right now. It's about an hour and 15 minutes from my home. It's a spectacular place, mountains. I'll kind of swing this around. Maybe you can see the mountains up there. I don't know. We're staying at this unit here for two nights, my wife and I, just to get a little break from being hunkered down because of COVID.

The drive up here is just spectacular. You drive along a fjord, Howe Sound, then you drive inland and you've got mountains surrounding you. I might intersperse this video with some pictures, if we take some more pictures. We're going to play a bit of golf here. It's very warm. I think it's like 27-28 degrees. It's supposed to go up to 32. We're going to Pemberton, which is another 45 minutes down the road and play a golf course called Big Sky.

I'm driving up here with my wife and we're listening to a podcast about the Byzantine Empire. So I'm enjoying the drive. I'm enjoying listening to the Byzantine Empire podcast. Why am I listening to a podcast about the Byzantine Empire? Because I've been learning Arabic, Persian and Turkish, so I'm kind of exploring that part of the world. I've read books now on the history of Persia or of Iran, on the history of Arabic countries prior to Islam, post Islam, the Colonial period and, low and behold, I read a book on the Byzantine Empire, which is something we learned so little about.

All of these things that spring from my learning of the language are things that I enjoy and while I'm doing them, reading in English, I'm enjoying that. But when I'm with the language, if I'm doing our mini stories in Arabic and I'm kind of rediscovering things that I learned and forgot in the sort of mini stories, the simple vocabulary, the basic structures, I get this giddy feeling that I actually understand say the Al Jazeera podcast when they talk about the United Arab Emirates deal with Israel mutual recognition, what that means, tensions in the Middle East and I'm hearing it from someone from the area in Arabic. Although, until I actually start reading it, saving words, looking them up, I don't necessarily understand that much, but I understand quite a bit of it, so I enjoy that.

I'm not thinking about the day when I'll be fluent in Arabic. I know I will get there, but I'm actually enjoying the time that I spend with the language now and I think this applies to everything we do. We can turn around and I can look at the trees. Even at my home, I can look at the texture of my pine flooring or a carpet that we bought in Beijing 50 years ago. Or in Hong Kong, I don't remember. In fact, I tweeted about that.

I think it's important always to focus on what you're doing in the moment and it's really important in language learning because we have to believe that what we are doing is important and enjoyable. You want to enjoy what you're doing. So if you're learning a language and you're saying this is boring, but I'm hoping that some day it will be worth it for me, to me that is not as powerful as I'm enjoying what I'm doing now. This is what I want to be doing. There are all kinds of other things I can do, but I'll do those later. Right now, I'm enjoying being in my language.

And, of course, what's so wonderful in today's world, I thought about this again as I was preparing my trip up here with my wife and, of course, I just finished this book on the Byzantine Empire discussing Byzantine strategy and how they managed to play different step people and other enemies against each other so that they survived for 1,000 years. After all, the Byzantine Empire survived up until 1453. So then I said, well, I wonder if there's a podcast on this. So I go to an app called Pocket Cast or something like that and, low and behold, there are podcasts on everything.

For example, if I take the word Arabia for Arabic and I put that in the search, I find all kinds of Arabic podcasts, Persian podcasts, French podcasts, Spanish podcasts. All of these things are available to us. I haven't yet done any research to find which of these have transcripts because I require transcripts certainly in Arabic and Persian to understand what's being said, but I know there's this tremendous quantity of material out there. I can actually listen to a podcast in Arabic even without having the transcripts and it's new, it's interesting, I pick up certain things and even that is enjoyable.

I just want to emphasize this idea that, obviously, to be successful in language learning you have to believe in what you're doing. You have to believe that you can succeed. The belief that you will succeed in becoming fluent is kind of projecting into the future, but at the same time you have to find ways to enjoy what you're doing now because if you enjoy what you're doing it's going to come into your brain. You're going to stay with it. You're going to put in the time. You're going to stay positive. You will eventually achieve your goal, if you can enjoy what you're doing in the moment.

So that's what I wanted to say about learning in the moment. Bye for now.

Learning Languages in the Moment Sprachen lernen im Moment Aprender idiomas en el momento Apprendre les langues dans l'instant Imparare le lingue al momento 瞬間的に語学を学ぶ 순간순간 언어 학습 Nauka języków w chwili obecnej Aprender línguas no momento Изучение языков в данный момент Anında Dil Öğrenmek Вивчайте мови миттєво 立即学习语言 當下學習語言

Hi there. Ciao. Hopefully, this is going. Spero che questo stia andando. Let me see. Fammi vedere. Yeah. Sì. I can't really see too well because the sun is in my face. Non riesco davvero a vedere molto bene perché ho il sole in faccia. Today, I want to talk about learning languages in the moment. Today, I want to talk about learning languages in the moment. Oggi voglio parlare dell'apprendimento delle lingue in questo momento. This is something that applies to so many things that we do in life. Questo è qualcosa che si applica a così tante cose che facciamo nella vita. Это то, что относится ко многим вещам, которые мы делаем в жизни. Very often, we're looking forward to what's going to happen tomorrow or we have goals of what we want to achieve, but sometimes we just have to focus on what we're enjoying right now. Molto spesso, non vediamo l'ora di cosa accadrà domani o abbiamo degli obiettivi su ciò che vogliamo ottenere, ma a volte dobbiamo solo concentrarci su ciò che ci piace in questo momento. Очень часто мы с нетерпением ждем того, что произойдет завтра, или у нас есть цели, которых мы хотим достичь, но иногда нам просто нужно сосредоточиться на том, что нам нравится прямо сейчас.

By the way, if you enjoy these videos, please subscribe. You can click on the little bell in order to get notification. And if you want to learn languages the way I do, please join us at LingQ. Eğer siz de benim gibi dil öğrenmek istiyorsanız, lütfen LingQ'da bize katılın.

I was thinking of this as I was driving up to Whistler, Whistler, B.C., which is where I am right now. Şu anda bulunduğum Whistler, Whistler, B.C.'ye doğru araba kullanırken bunu düşünüyordum. It's about an hour and 15 minutes from my home. It's a spectacular place, mountains. I'll kind of swing this around. Ich werde das irgendwie herumschwingen. Bunu biraz sallayacağım. Maybe you can see the mountains up there. I don't know. We're staying at this unit here for two nights, my wife and I, just to get a little break from being hunkered down because of COVID. Wir bleiben hier für zwei Nächte in dieser Einheit, meine Frau und ich, nur um eine kleine Pause davon zu bekommen, dass wir uns wegen COVID zusammengekauert haben. Mi mujer y yo nos vamos a quedar dos noches en esta unidad para descansar un poco de estar encerrados por culpa del COVID. Eşim ve ben iki geceliğine bu birimde kalıyoruz, sadece COVID nedeniyle bir yere kapanmaya biraz ara vermek için.

The drive up here is just spectacular. You drive along a fjord, Howe Sound, then you drive inland and you've got mountains surrounding you. Je rijdt langs een fjord, Howe Sound, dan rijd je landinwaarts en heb je bergen om je heen. 沿着峡湾豪湾（Howe Sound）行驶，然后驶入内陆，群山环绕。 I might intersperse this video with some pictures, if we take some more pictures. Ich könnte dieses Video mit einigen Bildern durchsetzen, wenn wir noch mehr Bilder machen. Posso intercalar este vídeo com algumas fotos, se tirarmos mais fotos. We're going to play a bit of golf here. It's very warm. I think it's like 27-28 degrees. It's supposed to go up to 32. We're going to Pemberton, which is another 45 minutes down the road and play a golf course called Big Sky. Yolun 45 dakika aşağısındaki Pemberton'a gideceğiz ve Big Sky adında bir golf sahasında oynayacağız.

I'm driving up here with my wife and we're listening to a podcast about the Byzantine Empire. So I'm enjoying the drive. I'm enjoying listening to the Byzantine Empire podcast. Why am I listening to a podcast about the Byzantine Empire? Because I've been learning Arabic, Persian and Turkish, so I'm kind of exploring that part of the world. I've read books now on the history of Persia or of Iran, on the history of Arabic countries prior to Islam, post Islam, the Colonial period and, low and behold, I read a book on the Byzantine Empire, which is something we learned so little about. Ahora he leído libros sobre la historia de Persia o de Irán, sobre la historia de los países árabes antes del Islam, después del Islam, el periodo colonial y, he aquí que he leído un libro sobre el Imperio Bizantino, que es algo de lo que hemos aprendido tan poco. İran ve Pers tarihi, Arap ülkelerinin İslam öncesi, İslam sonrası ve sömürge dönemi tarihi üzerine kitaplar okudum ve bir de baktım ki hakkında çok az şey öğrendiğimiz Bizans İmparatorluğu üzerine bir kitap okudum. 我读过关于波斯或伊朗历史的书，也读过关于伊斯兰教之前、伊斯兰教之后、殖民地时期阿拉伯国家历史的书。

All of these things that spring from my learning of the language are things that I enjoy and while I'm doing them, reading in English, I'm enjoying that. But when I'm with the language, if I'm doing our mini stories in Arabic and I'm kind of rediscovering things that I learned and forgot in the sort of mini stories, the simple vocabulary, the basic structures, I get this giddy feeling that I actually understand say the Al Jazeera podcast when they talk about the United Arab Emirates deal with Israel mutual recognition, what that means, tensions in the Middle East and I'm hearing it from someone from the area in Arabic. Pero cuando estoy con el idioma, si estoy haciendo nuestras minihistorias en árabe y estoy redescubriendo cosas que aprendí y olvidé en las minihistorias, el vocabulario sencillo, las estructuras básicas, tengo esta sensación de vértigo de que realmente entiendo, digamos, el podcast de Al Jazeera cuando hablan del acuerdo de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos con Israel sobre el reconocimiento mutuo, lo que eso significa, las tensiones en Oriente Medio y lo estoy escuchando de alguien de la zona en árabe. Ancak dille iç içe olduğumda, mini hikayelerimizi Arapça yapıyorsam ve mini hikayelerde öğrendiğim ve unuttuğum şeyleri, basit kelimeleri, temel yapıları yeniden keşfediyorsam, örneğin El Cezire podcast'inde Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri'nin İsrail ile karşılıklı tanıma anlaşmasından, bunun ne anlama geldiğinden, Orta Doğu'daki gerilimlerden bahsettiklerinde ve bunu bölgeden birinden Arapça olarak duyduğumda gerçekten anladığımı hissediyorum. Although, until I actually start reading it, saving words, looking them up, I don't necessarily understand that much, but I understand quite a bit of it, so I enjoy that.

I'm not thinking about the day when I'll be fluent in Arabic. I know I will get there, but I'm actually enjoying the time that I spend with the language now and I think this applies to everything we do. 我知道我会到达那里，但我实际上很享受现在花在语言上的时间，我认为这适用于我们所做的一切。 We can turn around and I can look at the trees. Even at my home, I can look at the texture of my pine flooring or a carpet that we bought in Beijing 50 years ago. Even at my home, I can look at the texture of my pine flooring or a carpet that we bought in Beijing 50 years ago. Evimde bile, 50 yıl önce Pekin'den aldığımız bir halının ya da çam döşememin dokusuna bakabiliyorum. Or in Hong Kong, I don't remember. In fact, I tweeted about that. Tatsächlich habe ich darüber getwittert.

I think it's important always to focus on what you're doing in the moment and it's really important in language learning because we have to believe that what we are doing is important and enjoyable. You want to enjoy what you're doing. So if you're learning a language and you're saying this is boring, but I'm hoping that some day it will be worth it for me, to me that is not as powerful as I'm enjoying what I'm doing now. Yani bir dil öğreniyorsanız ve bunun sıkıcı olduğunu söylüyorsanız, ama bir gün benim için buna değeceğini umuyorum, benim için bu şu anda yaptığım şeyden zevk aldığım kadar güçlü değil. This is what I want to be doing. Questo è quello che voglio fare. There are all kinds of other things I can do, but I'll do those later. Right now, I'm enjoying being in my language.

And, of course, what's so wonderful in today's world, I thought about this again as I was preparing my trip up here with my wife and, of course, I just finished this book on the Byzantine Empire discussing Byzantine strategy and how they managed to play different step people and other enemies against each other so that they survived for 1,000 years. Und natürlich, was in der heutigen Welt so wunderbar ist, dachte ich noch einmal darüber nach, als ich meine Reise mit meiner Frau hierher vorbereitete, und natürlich habe ich gerade dieses Buch über das Byzantinische Reich fertiggestellt, in dem es um die byzantinische Strategie ging und wie sie es geschafft haben Spielen Sie verschiedene Schrittleute und andere Feinde gegeneinander, damit sie 1.000 Jahre lang überleben. Y, por supuesto, lo que es tan maravilloso en el mundo de hoy, pensé en esto de nuevo como yo estaba preparando mi viaje hasta aquí con mi esposa y, por supuesto, acabo de terminar este libro sobre el Imperio Bizantino discutir la estrategia bizantina y cómo se las arreglaron para jugar diferentes personas paso y otros enemigos unos contra otros para que sobrevivieron durante 1.000 años. E, naturalmente, cosa c'è di così meraviglioso nel mondo di oggi, ci ho pensato di nuovo mentre stavo preparando il mio viaggio quassù con mia moglie e, naturalmente, ho appena finito questo libro sull'impero bizantino che parla della strategia bizantina e di come sono riusciti a gioca diversi passi persone e altri nemici l'uno contro l'altro in modo che sopravvivano per 1.000 anni. Ve elbette bugünün dünyasında harika olan şey, eşimle buraya seyahatimi hazırlarken bunu tekrar düşündüm ve elbette Bizans İmparatorluğu üzerine Bizans stratejisini ve farklı step insanlarını ve diğer düşmanları birbirlerine karşı oynamayı nasıl başardıklarını ve böylece 1.000 yıl boyunca hayatta kaldıklarını tartışan bu kitabı yeni bitirdim. 而且，当然，在当今世界上如此奇妙的是，当我准备与妻子一起去这里旅行时，我又想到了这一点，当然，我刚刚完成了这本关于拜占庭帝国的书，讨论了拜占庭的战略以及他们如何设法玩家和其他敌人互相对抗，使他们存活了1000年。 After all, the Byzantine Empire survived up until 1453. So then I said, well, I wonder if there's a podcast on this. So I go to an app called Pocket Cast or something like that and, low and behold, there are podcasts on everything. Quindi vado su un'app chiamata Pocket Cast o qualcosa del genere e, basso ed ecco, ci sono podcast su tutto. Bu yüzden Pocket Cast ya da onun gibi bir uygulamaya giriyorum ve bir de bakıyorum ki her şeyde podcast var.

For example, if I take the word Arabia for Arabic and I put that in the search, I find all kinds of Arabic podcasts, Persian podcasts, French podcasts, Spanish podcasts. Ad esempio, se prendo la parola Arabia per arabo e la metto nella ricerca, trovo tutti i tipi di podcast arabi, podcast persiani, podcast francesi, podcast spagnoli. All of these things are available to us. Tutte queste cose sono a nostra disposizione. I haven't yet done any research to find which of these have transcripts because I require transcripts certainly in Arabic and Persian to understand what's being said, but I know there's this tremendous quantity of material out there. 我还没有做任何研究来查找其中哪些有文字记录，因为我需要阿拉伯语和波斯语的文字记录才能理解所说的内容，但我知道那里有大量的资料。 I can actually listen to a podcast in Arabic even without having the transcripts and it's new, it's interesting, I pick up certain things and even that is enjoyable. Posso effettivamente ascoltare un podcast in arabo anche senza avere le trascrizioni ed è nuovo, è interessante, capisco certe cose e anche quello è divertente.

I just want to emphasize this idea that, obviously, to be successful in language learning you have to believe in what you're doing. Voglio solo sottolineare l'idea che, ovviamente, per avere successo nell'apprendimento delle lingue devi credere in quello che stai facendo. You have to believe that you can succeed. Devi credere che puoi avere successo. The belief that you will succeed in becoming fluent is kind of projecting into the future, but at the same time you have to find ways to enjoy what you're doing now because if you enjoy what you're doing it's going to come into your brain. La creencia de que conseguirás hablar con fluidez es una especie de proyección hacia el futuro, pero al mismo tiempo tienes que encontrar la manera de disfrutar de lo que estás haciendo ahora, porque si disfrutas con lo que haces, te llegará al cerebro. La convinzione che riuscirai a diventare fluente è una specie di proiezione nel futuro, ma allo stesso tempo devi trovare modi per divertirti con quello che stai facendo ora perché se ti piace quello che stai facendo entrerà nel tuo cervello. You're going to stay with it. Rimarrai con esso. You're going to put in the time. Ci metterai del tempo. You're going to stay positive. You will eventually achieve your goal, if you can enjoy what you're doing in the moment.

So that's what I wanted to say about learning in the moment. Bye for now.