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Steve's Language Learning Tips, Speaking a New Language: Language Learning Goal 4

Speaking a New Language: Language Learning Goal 4

To speak well you have to speak a lot and you have to speak in intensive situations.

Hi, Steve Kaufmann here and today I want to talk about what is really, you

know, the fourth goal in my hierarchy of goals, uh, in language learning

and that speaking, uh, remember if you enjoy these videos, please subscribe,

click on the bell for notifications.

And uh, if you follow me on a podcast service, please leave a comment.

I do appreciate it.

So for many people, speaking is the first goal.

I want to speak.

If you have followed me here, you know that I have the view that is

not realistic to speak from day one.

Let's say if you're a, if you're in a situation, like my situation, when I was

in Japan, where I'm surrounded by the language, I can try to speak to people.

Uh, but it won't be my major activity initially, because I don't have the words.

If you go back to my hierarchy of goals, I don't have the words.

I haven't read these words.

I haven't listened to enough of the language so that I can understand.

I don't have the listening comprehension.

So my ability to talk to people is very limited.

So I am not that keen under normal circumstances to start

talking, I find it frustrating.

Almost intimidating.

If I don't understand what people are saying, I'm not so keen to

engage them in conversation.

So what are my goals?

My goal, I tend to say, you know, I used to wait until I had about 10,000

words in language before I would start speaking to, say, a tutor online.

Uh, now I've dropped that to about three to 5,000 words, uh, because

I, uh, maybe I've become better at learning these languages.

And so I don't mind the struggle.

Um, less, uh, self-conscious about not understanding.

And in any case, when I start with a tutor, I'll typically get

on there once or twice a week.

So that's not a major investment of time because where I want to continue

to invest my time is listening and reading, acquiring words.

However, I do recognize that to speak well, and we all want to speak well,

we all want to speak well, um, to speak while you have to speak a lot.

And you have to speak in intensive situations.

So to have a short conversation, because you're...

you go to someone in Chinatown and use a few words of Chinese, or you order your,

you know, whatever dish in a Chinese restaurant in Chinese, to me, that's not a

very intense engagement with the language.

On the other hand, if you are with people and you're speaking Chinese and you're

with them over dinner and everybody's speaking Chinese, and you're speaking

Chinese and you're participating in the conference, that's tremendously powerful.

That's first of all input, that is high resonance input because

you're in that conversation.

It's real and you're struggling to get your meaning out.

And there's a lot of pressure because everyone is speaking

very quickly in Chinese.

And when you go to speak you feel you don't have the time to say what you want

to say, those are all great situations.

But to be in that situation, you have to have a certain level of preparation.

So that's why I put so much emphasis on acquiring words, reading to

reinforce those words, listening to improve your listening comprehension.

And then when you get the opportunity, try to put yourself in intense situations.

And when you're in that intense situation, just go for it.

And, you know, if you struggle to say what you want to say, if you feel that

you you're slowing down the conversation for everyone else, because that...

you know, going to be impatient, but mostly they're not going to be impatient.

They're willing to wait for you to say what you want to say.

So I think it's very important if, if we have built up our confidence in

the language and our comprehension, if we have words, we may search for

the words, but somewhere we know we have some of the words we want to use.

If you have that level of preparation, you can get into higher intensity

conversation opportunities.

It's a bit like when I exercise now, I'm doing these kettle bell workouts,

high intensity interval training.

There's something to be said for high intensity, to be in a high intensive

high intensity, uh, language situation.

You have to be prepared for it.

Uh, just to sit like, uh, and talk about the weather, uh, with five or

six other students, it's not that it's not effective, but I think spending

that time with the language, doing a lot of listening and reading and, and,

and working on acquiring more words is a more useful way to spend your time.

And you can save that speaking opportunity, whether one-on-one

or in a group, till you have sufficient a sufficient

vocabulary, sufficient confidence, sufficient listening confidence.

So that you can actually have a very intense even an hour one-on-one.

Now, when I speak with my Persian tutor, Sahra, we cover a lot of ground and

there's a lot of words that I can't remember, and she has to remind me, but

then I get from her my conversation report on LingQ where she has 15 or so words and

phrases that I didn't use correctly or where I struggled or I'd forgotten them.

And, uh, and she records this and I listen to it and I may forget

it again for the next time.

And in fact, I can see in my record of my conversation, reports going back, say six

months that I make the same mistakes every week to a large extent, but gradually,

gradually, gradually I get better.

And so the, um, if I'm initially maybe only talking twice a week, I may

eventually step that up, particularly if I have an opportunity to go to

the country, because when you go to the country, your opportunity to

speak is going to be much greater.

And I like to prepare myself as much as possible before going to the country.

So when I went to Greece or to Romania, then I would beforehand step up the number

of conversations with my tutor to maybe four times a week, five times a week.

And then when I arrive in the country, when I was on Crete, I have a chance.

I have a chance of understanding what they're saying.

I have a chance that I can say what I want to say, and they won't

come back at me, come back at me in English, because if you don't have

that level, then you may miss...

you may not take full advantage of the opportunity of being in the

country because the locals who don't necessarily want to be your teacher,

they just want to communicate if they sense that you can't understand and you

can't communicate, they'll switch to a language where it's easier for them

to communicate, which may be English.

So I think it's very important to take full advantage of that intensive,

you know, speaking opportunity that visiting the country can represent,

to prepare for it ahead of time.

So to summarize the goal in speaking, in my view, is to get to a level

where you can defend yourself.

You don't have to be perfect.

You can have poor pronunciation, you can forget words, but you

understand what people are saying.

You can defend yourself so you can hang in there, hang in there in these

more intense, uh, engagements with people in the language, which are

going to be very powerful for you to develop your speaking skills, which...

while I put it as the fourth goal, because I know there are three

other goals that have to come first, but it is a very important goal.

We all want to end up speaking well.

So thank you for listening.

I hope that was useful.

Bye for now.


Speaking a New Language: Language Learning Goal 4 Eine neue Sprache sprechen: Sprachlernziel 4 Speaking a New Language: Language Learning Goal 4 Hablar un nuevo idioma: Objetivo de aprendizaje de idiomas 4 Parler une nouvelle langue : Objectif d'apprentissage des langues 4 Parlare una nuova lingua: Obiettivo di apprendimento linguistico 4 新しい言語を話す言語学習の目標4 새로운 언어 말하기: 언어 학습 목표 4 Mówienie w nowym języku: Cel nauki języka 4 Falar uma nova língua: Objectivo de Aprendizagem de Línguas 4 Говорить на новом языке: Цель изучения языка 4 Yeni Bir Dil Konuşmak: Dil Öğrenme Hedefi 4 Розмовляти новою мовою: Мета вивчення мови 4 说一门新语言:语言学习目标 4 說一門新語言:語言學習目標 4

To speak well you have to speak a lot and you have to speak in intensive situations.

Hi, Steve Kaufmann here and today I want to talk about what is really, you

know, the fourth goal in my hierarchy of goals, uh, in language learning

and that speaking, uh, remember if you enjoy these videos, please subscribe,

click on the bell for notifications.

And uh, if you follow me on a podcast service, please leave a comment.

I do appreciate it.

So for many people, speaking is the first goal.

I want to speak.

If you have followed me here, you know that I have the view that is

not realistic to speak from day one.

Let's say if you're a, if you're in a situation, like my situation, when I was

in Japan, where I'm surrounded by the language, I can try to speak to people.

Uh, but it won't be my major activity initially, because I don't have the words.

If you go back to my hierarchy of goals, I don't have the words.

I haven't read these words.

I haven't listened to enough of the language so that I can understand.

I don't have the listening comprehension.

So my ability to talk to people is very limited.

So I am not that keen under normal circumstances to start

talking, I find it frustrating.

Almost intimidating.

If I don't understand what people are saying, I'm not so keen to

engage them in conversation.

So what are my goals?

My goal, I tend to say, you know, I used to wait until I had about 10,000

words in language before I would start speaking to, say, a tutor online.

Uh, now I've dropped that to about three to 5,000 words, uh, because

I, uh, maybe I've become better at learning these languages.

And so I don't mind the struggle.

Um, less, uh, self-conscious about not understanding.

And in any case, when I start with a tutor, I'll typically get

on there once or twice a week.

So that's not a major investment of time because where I want to continue

to invest my time is listening and reading, acquiring words.

However, I do recognize that to speak well, and we all want to speak well,

we all want to speak well, um, to speak while you have to speak a lot.

And you have to speak in intensive situations.

So to have a short conversation, because you're...

you go to someone in Chinatown and use a few words of Chinese, or you order your,

you know, whatever dish in a Chinese restaurant in Chinese, to me, that's not a

very intense engagement with the language.

On the other hand, if you are with people and you're speaking Chinese and you're

with them over dinner and everybody's speaking Chinese, and you're speaking

Chinese and you're participating in the conference, that's tremendously powerful.

That's first of all input, that is high resonance input because

you're in that conversation.

It's real and you're struggling to get your meaning out.

And there's a lot of pressure because everyone is speaking

very quickly in Chinese.

And when you go to speak you feel you don't have the time to say what you want И когда вы идете говорить, вы чувствуете, что у вас нет времени, чтобы сказать, что вы хотите

to say, those are all great situations. сказать, что это все большие ситуации.

But to be in that situation, you have to have a certain level of preparation.

So that's why I put so much emphasis on acquiring words, reading to

reinforce those words, listening to improve your listening comprehension.

And then when you get the opportunity, try to put yourself in intense situations.

And when you're in that intense situation, just go for it.

And, you know, if you struggle to say what you want to say, if you feel that

you you're slowing down the conversation for everyone else, because that...

you know, going to be impatient, but mostly they're not going to be impatient.

They're willing to wait for you to say what you want to say.

So I think it's very important if, if we have built up our confidence in

the language and our comprehension, if we have words, we may search for

the words, but somewhere we know we have some of the words we want to use.

If you have that level of preparation, you can get into higher intensity

conversation opportunities.

It's a bit like when I exercise now, I'm doing these kettle bell workouts,

high intensity interval training.

There's something to be said for high intensity, to be in a high intensive

high intensity, uh, language situation.

You have to be prepared for it.

Uh, just to sit like, uh, and talk about the weather, uh, with five or

six other students, it's not that it's not effective, but I think spending

that time with the language, doing a lot of listening and reading and, and,

and working on acquiring more words is a more useful way to spend your time.

And you can save that speaking opportunity, whether one-on-one

or in a group, till you have sufficient a sufficient

vocabulary, sufficient confidence, sufficient listening confidence.

So that you can actually have a very intense even an hour one-on-one.

Now, when I speak with my Persian tutor, Sahra, we cover a lot of ground and

there's a lot of words that I can't remember, and she has to remind me, but

then I get from her my conversation report on LingQ where she has 15 or so words and

phrases that I didn't use correctly or where I struggled or I'd forgotten them.

And, uh, and she records this and I listen to it and I may forget

it again for the next time.

And in fact, I can see in my record of my conversation, reports going back, say six

months that I make the same mistakes every week to a large extent, but gradually,

gradually, gradually I get better.

And so the, um, if I'm initially maybe only talking twice a week, I may

eventually step that up, particularly if I have an opportunity to go to

the country, because when you go to the country, your opportunity to

speak is going to be much greater.

And I like to prepare myself as much as possible before going to the country.

So when I went to Greece or to Romania, then I would beforehand step up the number Поэтому, когда я ездил в Грецию или в Румынию, я заранее увеличивал число

of conversations with my tutor to maybe four times a week, five times a week.

And then when I arrive in the country, when I was on Crete, I have a chance.

I have a chance of understanding what they're saying.

I have a chance that I can say what I want to say, and they won't

come back at me, come back at me in English, because if you don't have

that level, then you may miss...

you may not take full advantage of the opportunity of being in the

country because the locals who don't necessarily want to be your teacher,

they just want to communicate if they sense that you can't understand and you

can't communicate, they'll switch to a language where it's easier for them

to communicate, which may be English.

So I think it's very important to take full advantage of that intensive,

you know, speaking opportunity that visiting the country can represent,

to prepare for it ahead of time.

So to summarize the goal in speaking, in my view, is to get to a level

where you can defend yourself.

You don't have to be perfect.

You can have poor pronunciation, you can forget words, but you

understand what people are saying.

You can defend yourself so you can hang in there, hang in there in these

more intense, uh, engagements with people in the language, which are

going to be very powerful for you to develop your speaking skills, which...

while I put it as the fourth goal, because I know there are three

other goals that have to come first, but it is a very important goal.

We all want to end up speaking well.

So thank you for listening.

I hope that was useful.

Bye for now.