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Steve's Youtube Videos - Motivation, Happiness in Language Learning Referencing Thinking, Fast and Slow by Kahneman

Happiness in Language Learning Referencing Thinking, Fast and Slow by Kahneman

Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here.

You may know that I was in France for 10 days and I want to talk a little bit about happiness and language learning because these are thoughts that came to me as a result of some of the reading I did while I was in France. I read this book here, which is a book about Francois Premier, called Francois Premier et la Renaissance . It talks about the Renaissance period in France and the life of Francois Premier, who was a very romantic and warlike king.

I'm only a third of the way through the book at this point, so I have lots to learn, but it is, of course, very enjoyable to read about that period of France, having visited some of the chateaus along the .

He was responsible, I think, for building and adding to some of the others. I think he was responsible for making the Louvre or at least the Chateau in Paris (the Chateau de Louvre) what it is today. So that's fun. That's happiness, reading, in this case in a foreign language, about the history of the country that you're visiting.

Getting further along on the subject of happiness, I also picked up this book.

I went to my old school at _. I went to their bookstore and there was this little book L'Économie du Bonheur , The Economics of Happiness , so I read through that. It was very interesting and it made reference to a number of people who wrote about happiness, measuring happiness and the attempt now to measure happiness rather than just measuring the GNP of countries and so forth and a name that came up quite often in his book was that of Daniel Kahneman, who is the winner of a Nobel Prize. So when I was in London I bought this book, which is called Thinking, Fast and Slow .

That is a very, very interesting book.

I very much suggest that you read it. It's not exciting. It's not fun to read like Francois Premier and I'm not sure I fully understand it, but what it says, from what I can tell, is that we have sort of two ways of thinking, the fast way and the slow way. The fast way is our intuitive way of thinking. It's very much influenced by our experience, I guess, patterns that we've built up in our minds, prejudices perhaps, we jump to conclusions and he demonstrates just how irrational so much of our thinking is.

You'd have to read the book to see all the different examples, but if we describe someone as being energetic, enthusiastic and stubborn, we have a better impression of that person than if we say energetic, enthusiastic, stubborn and envious.

We may still think that person is a good person because we started out with positive terms. If we turn it around and we begin with envious and stubborn, then the enthusiastic and energetic doesn't seem to overcome those first attributes that we gave the person.

That's just one example that comes from memory.

There were a number of others in that our tendency is to want to use the easy way of thinking, what he calls ‘cognitive ease'. If we're asked a complicated question, we'll substitute that for a simple question we can easily answer. That is our quick thinking. Our slow thinking is more complicated. It's a furrowed brow. It's trying to make complicated calculations. If we are driving a car, if we're multitasking, it's very easy to combine the sort of easy-thinking tasks with some other activity. However, if we had to calculate 37 by 43, we can't make that calculation in our head, while driving a car for example. Anything that we are already prepared for or conditioned to respond to, those easy cognitive things, we can do those while we're driving a car.

He talks also about how, typically, people are far too overconfident about their ability to achieve projects, deliver any major project on budget and on time, all of these things, because we're always optimistic.

We're always overconfident. We don't really analyze all of the facts at hand. We tend to be carried away with the sort of prejudices that we have going in, our desire to succeed, our overconfidence and so forth.

So it's quite an interesting book.

I don't do it justice here, I have to read it again to fully understand it, but he also talks about happiness and how, for example, we have a tendency to place greater emphasis on the peaks of happiness or suffering rather than the duration. We tend to forget that we were in pain for 10 minutes, but the peaks were low. Whereas, if we had a very high level of pain for a very short period of time that's worse. The same is true in reverse. We tend to remember the sort of peaks of enjoyment rather than the longer period of happiness. So he questions, to some extent, all these different evaluations of happiness, how valid they are and so forth, but what I take out of all of this is the following.

First of all, insofar as language learning is concerned, the more I can do with my quick learning, pre-prepared patterns that are already created in my mind, easy cognitive, the more things that I do that way the better off I am and the more I enjoy my language learning.

We had someone at our forum at LingQ come on because at LingQ every time one of our users goes to a dictionary, whichever dictionary and selects a meaning for a word from Spanish into English, that's cashed in the system. Not all of those hints are necessarily appropriate and they don't provide you information on the tense or the conjugations and so forth, so someone was saying this is not valid. We need to have all the conjugations there. We need to have this, that and the other.

I say well, not for me.

Really, I just want to focus on the content that I'm reading and listening to. So I get a suggestion of roughly what the word means and then I try to piece it together from the context. That's really all I want. I don't want to bother myself with all the conjugations and stuff. I know from experience that I tend to forget that stuff pretty quickly, so I'd rather just focus on the easy cognitive things. Okay, ‘roughly' means that; therefore, in this content it seems to mean this. So I'm kind of getting some sense out of the context without having to think about it too much.

If I listen to it, I can listen to it while I'm doing the dishes.

I don't have to focus on trying to remember anything, it's just easy cognitive stuff. When I'm speaking the language, I just go to that easy cognitive, whatever reflex I have built up in there. Be it right, be it wrong, that's what I go with. I don't worry too much about trying to remember the rules, is this correct or not correct? I find if we can develop our knowledge of the language, as Krashen says through massive listening and reading, we develop these patterns. We develop sort of these intuitive reactions, some of which are right, some of which are wrong.

Kahneman in his book makes the point that a lot of our intuitive views on things are false, wrong or distorted.

It doesn't matter. We need these. We operate on the basis of these intuitive reactions, this quick thinking we have. I think the same is true of language. We need to develop that side of it. Personally, the more I rely on the slow think, work it through, analyze and stuff, the less enjoyment I have in my language learning and I think the less well I speak. So that's one thing that comes out of it.

The other thing he mentions is that when we look at what makes us happy, one of the things is the ability to focus on the moment we are in.

We can't be happy if we're studying French and we think we should be studying Korean. We have to totally savor the moment, savor the language that we are studying. If we would rather be out dancing, then we should be out dancing. The idea that you savor the moment you're in is important to achieving happiness and I think the same is true in language learning. You have to, basically, commit yourself to the task at hand and enjoy the task at hand, derive pleasure from the task at hand rather than thinking that you're doing something that's going to bring you some benefits later on. It's unpleasant, it's hard work and you're struggling and stuff, but you're hoping that somehow this is going to get you to where you want to be.

I've found that if the approach to language learning is this is fun, I'm enjoying listening to whatever it is, I'm enjoying reading it, I'm enjoying being ‘in the language', ‘in the moment', that that's really all you need to do without thinking of where it's going to lead to.

When you do occasionally have that sense that you've made a major step forward, which we every so often feel even though for long periods of time we're not improving, when there are moments when you think you do, then you should really savor those moments without worrying about the mistakes that you made, without worrying about whether you can remember endings of verbs and stuff. None of that really matters.

I guess, really, it may not be very clear.

I think I have to go back and read the book again and I would be very happy to discuss this with some of you who may choose to read the book. Again, I'll show you the book here Thinking, Fast and Slow , Danielle Kahneman. I think there's a lot in there that I have to go back and read again and again, which demonstrates just how faulty a lot of our thinking is, but that's the way we are.

The other big thing in Kahneman is his emphasis on luck.

In any success luck has a major role to play. Therefore, if we have a string of success, there's every likelihood that this will be followed by a string of failures or vice-versa. Because luck is such a big factor, there is this effect of what he calls ‘the regression to the mean'. Inevitably, statistically if you've had a lot of success through luck, you're going to have some periods of less success and so we need to accept that, as well. There are a lot of lessons to life in that book. At times it seems a bit cut and dry, statistical analysis, prospect theory, decision-making theory and stuff like that, but I think there's a lot there that's valid in general and, in particular, valid for language learning.

So it's kind of a bit of a fuzzy rant today, but I think there is something there, at least in my own experience.

Those people who like to get into the nitty-gritty of grammar and enjoy doing that, that's their thing, they're in the flow and they're enjoying it, by all means, go for it, but I think a lot of people don't. Even if you don't, there are so many ways you can enjoy language learning where you're not worried about where you stand vis-à-vis other people. You're not worried about where you stand vis-à-vis some future goal you have. You're just enjoying being in the moment. You're enjoying this sort of cognitive ease of just listening and reading in the knowledge that in fact it's building up a lot of experience in your brain, a lot of patterns that eventually will become intuition.

Some may be wrong, some may be right, but you can flow with that intuition and you're building up an ability to react easily, quickly and even in a way that you can multitask in the language and that that's happiness in language learning.

It's not more complicated than that and you don't have to worry about whether you're a B1, B2, C1, TOEIC, TOEFL and all the rest of it. That will all come of its own if you can just invest of yourself into the language in this sort of natural learning process.

I'm not sure any of this makes sense, but there you go.

I look forward to your comments, bye for now.

Happiness in Language Learning Referencing Thinking, Fast and Slow by Kahneman Glück beim Sprachenlernen Bezug nehmend auf Thinking, Fast and Slow von Kahneman La felicidad en el aprendizaje de idiomas Referencia a Pensar, rápido y despacio de Kahneman Le bonheur dans l'apprentissage des langues Référence à Thinking, Fast and Slow de Kahneman 言語学習における幸福 カーネマン著『Thinking, Fast and Slow』を参照。 언어 학습의 행복 사고력, 빠르고 느리게 참조하기 by Kahneman Szczęście w nauce języków obcych Odniesienie do Thinking, Fast and Slow Kahnemana Felicidade na aprendizagem de línguas Referindo-se a Thinking, Fast and Slow de Kahneman Счастье в изучении языка со ссылкой на мышление, быстрое и медленное, Канеман Dil Öğreniminde Mutluluk Kahneman'ın Hızlı ve Yavaş Düşünme adlı eserine atıf Щастя у вивченні мови, посилаючись на мислення, швидке та повільне за Канеманом 语言学习中的快乐参考卡尼曼的思维,快与慢 語言學習中的快樂參考卡尼曼的思維,快與慢

Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here. Привет, Стив Кауфманн здесь.

You may know that I was in France for 10 days and I want to talk a little bit about happiness and language learning because these are thoughts that came to me as a result of some of the reading I did while I was in France. Puede que sepas que estuve en Francia durante 10 días y quiero hablar un poco sobre la felicidad y el aprendizaje de idiomas porque son pensamientos que me vinieron como resultado de algunas de las lecturas que hice mientras estaba en Francia. Talvez saibam que estive em França durante 10 dias e quero falar um pouco sobre a felicidade e a aprendizagem de línguas, porque estas são reflexões que me ocorreram na sequência de algumas das leituras que fiz enquanto estive em França. Возможно, вы знаете, что я был во Франции в течение 10 дней, и я хочу немного поговорить о счастье и изучении языка, потому что это мысли, которые пришли ко мне в результате чтения, которое я читал во Франции. I read this book here, which is a book about Francois Premier, called Francois Premier et la Renaissance . Li este livro aqui, que é um livro sobre François Premier, chamado François Premier et la Renaissance . Я прочитал эту книгу здесь, книгу о Франсуа Премьере, которая называется «Франсуа Премьер и Ренессанс». It talks about the Renaissance period in France and the life of Francois Premier, who was a very romantic and warlike king. Habla de la época del Renacimiento en Francia y de la vida de Francois Premier, que fue un rey muy romántico y guerrero. Fala sobre o período renascentista em França e a vida de François Premier, que foi um rei muito romântico e guerreiro. В нем рассказывается о периоде Возрождения во Франции и жизни Франсуа Премьера, который был очень романтичным и воинственным королем.

I'm only a third of the way through the book at this point, so I have lots to learn, but it is, of course, very enjoyable to read about that period of France, having visited some of the chateaus along the ______. En este momento sólo he recorrido un tercio del libro, así que me queda mucho por aprender, pero, desde luego, es muy agradable leer sobre esa época de Francia, habiendo visitado algunos de los chateaus a lo largo del . Neste momento, só estou a um terço do livro, por isso ainda tenho muito que aprender, mas é, evidentemente, muito agradável ler sobre esse período de França, tendo visitado alguns dos castelos ao longo do percurso.

He was responsible, I think, for building ______ and adding to some of the others. Creo que fue el responsable de construir y ampliar algunos de los otros. Penso que foi ele o responsável pela construção e ampliação de algumas das outras. I think he was responsible for making the Louvre or at least the Chateau in Paris (the Chateau de Louvre) what it is today. So that's fun. Por isso, é divertido. That's happiness, reading, in this case in a foreign language, about the history of the country that you're visiting. Eso es la felicidad, leer, en este caso en un idioma extranjero, sobre la historia del país que estás visitando. Isso é felicidade, ler, neste caso numa língua estrangeira, sobre a história do país que se está a visitar.

Getting further along on the subject of happiness, I also picked up this book. Siguiendo con el tema de la felicidad, también cogí este libro.

I went to my old school at _______. I went to their bookstore and there was this little book L'Économie du Bonheur , The Economics of Happiness , so I read through that. Fui a su librería y había un pequeño libro, L'Économie du Bonheur , The Economics of Happiness , así que lo leí. Fui à livraria deles e havia um pequeno livro L'Économie du Bonheur , A Economia da Felicidade , e li-o. It was very interesting and it made reference to a number of people who wrote about happiness, measuring happiness and the attempt now to measure happiness rather than just measuring the GNP of countries and so forth and a name that came up quite often in his book was that of Daniel Kahneman, who is the winner of a Nobel Prize. Era muy interesante y hacía referencia a una serie de personas que escribieron sobre la felicidad, la medición de la felicidad y el intento actual de medir la felicidad en lugar de limitarse a medir el PNB de los países, etc., y un nombre que aparecía con bastante frecuencia en su libro era el de Daniel Kahneman, ganador de un Premio Nobel. So when I was in London I bought this book, which is called Thinking, Fast and Slow .

That is a very, very interesting book.

I very much suggest that you read it. It's not exciting. No es emocionante. Ce n'est pas passionnant. Não é excitante. It's not fun to read like Francois Premier and I'm not sure I fully understand it, but what it says, from what I can tell, is that we have sort of two ways of thinking, the fast way and the slow way. Não é divertido ler como o François Premier e não tenho a certeza de o compreender totalmente, mas o que diz, pelo que consigo perceber, é que temos duas formas de pensar, a rápida e a lenta. The fast way is our intuitive way of thinking. A forma rápida é a nossa forma intuitiva de pensar. It's very much influenced by our experience, I guess, patterns that we've built up in our minds, prejudices perhaps, we jump to conclusions and he demonstrates just how irrational so much of our thinking is. Está muy influenciado por nuestra experiencia, supongo, por los patrones que hemos construido en nuestras mentes, prejuicios quizás, sacamos conclusiones precipitadas y él demuestra lo irracional que es gran parte de nuestro pensamiento.

You'd have to read the book to see all the different examples, but if we describe someone as being energetic, enthusiastic and stubborn, we have a better impression of that person than if we say energetic, enthusiastic, stubborn and envious. Habría que leer el libro para ver los distintos ejemplos, pero si describimos a alguien como enérgico, entusiasta y testarudo, tenemos una mejor impresión de esa persona que si decimos enérgico, entusiasta, testarudo y envidioso. Teria de ler o livro para ver todos os diferentes exemplos, mas se descrevermos alguém como sendo enérgico, entusiasta e teimoso, ficamos com uma melhor impressão dessa pessoa do que se dissermos enérgico, entusiasta, teimoso e invejoso.

We may still think that person is a good person because we started out with positive terms. Podemos seguir pensando que esa persona es buena porque empezamos con términos positivos. Podemos continuar a pensar que essa pessoa é uma boa pessoa porque começámos com termos positivos. If we turn it around and we begin with envious and stubborn, then the enthusiastic and energetic doesn't seem to overcome those first attributes that we gave the person. Si le damos la vuelta y empezamos con envidioso y testarudo, entonces el entusiasta y enérgico no parece superar esos primeros atributos que le dimos a la persona. Se invertermos a situação e começarmos com invejoso e teimoso, então o entusiasmo e a energia não parecem superar os primeiros atributos que demos à pessoa.

That's just one example that comes from memory. Ce n'est qu'un exemple qui me vient à l'esprit.

There were a number of others in that our tendency is to want to use the easy way of thinking, what he calls ‘cognitive ease'. Había otros en que nuestra tendencia es querer utilizar la forma fácil de pensar, lo que él llama "facilidad cognitiva". Il y en a eu plusieurs autres, dans la mesure où nous avons tendance à vouloir utiliser la manière la plus facile de penser, ce qu'il appelle la "facilité cognitive". Houve uma série de outras em que a nossa tendência é querer usar a forma mais fácil de pensar, aquilo a que ele chama "facilidade cognitiva". If we're asked a complicated question, we'll substitute that for a simple question we can easily answer. That is our quick thinking. Our slow thinking is more complicated. It's a furrowed brow. C'est un sourcil froncé. É uma sobrancelha franzida. It's trying to make complicated calculations. If we are driving a car, if we're multitasking, it's very easy to combine the sort of easy-thinking tasks with some other activity. Se estivermos a conduzir um carro, se formos multitarefas, é muito fácil combinar o tipo de tarefas fáceis de pensar com outra atividade. However, if we had to calculate 37 by 43, we can't make that calculation in our head, while driving a car for example. Anything that we are already prepared for or conditioned to respond to, those easy cognitive things, we can do those while we're driving a car.

He talks also about how, typically, people are far too overconfident about their ability to achieve projects, deliver any major project on budget and on time, all of these things, because we're always optimistic. Fala também de como, normalmente, as pessoas são demasiado confiantes quanto à sua capacidade de realizar projectos, de entregar qualquer grande projeto dentro do orçamento e do prazo, todas estas coisas, porque estamos sempre optimistas.

We're always overconfident. We don't really analyze all of the facts at hand. Nous n'analysons pas vraiment tous les faits. We tend to be carried away with the sort of prejudices that we have going in, our desire to succeed, our overconfidence and so forth. Temos tendência a deixar-nos levar pelo tipo de preconceitos que temos à partida, pelo nosso desejo de sucesso, pelo nosso excesso de confiança, etc.

So it's quite an interesting book.

I don't do it justice here, I have to read it again to fully understand it, but he also talks about happiness and how, for example, we have a tendency to place greater emphasis on the peaks of happiness or suffering rather than the duration. Não lhe faço justiça aqui, tenho de o ler de novo para o compreender totalmente, mas ele também fala da felicidade e de como, por exemplo, temos tendência para dar mais ênfase aos picos de felicidade ou sofrimento do que à sua duração. We tend to forget that we were in pain for 10 minutes, but the peaks were low. Nous avons tendance à oublier que nous avons souffert pendant 10 minutes, mais les pics étaient faibles. Temos tendência a esquecer que estivemos a sofrer durante 10 minutos, mas os picos foram baixos. Whereas, if we had a very high level of pain for a very short period of time that's worse. En revanche, si la douleur est très forte pendant une très courte période, c'est pire. Se tivermos um nível de dor muito elevado durante um período de tempo muito curto, isso é pior. The same is true in reverse. O mesmo se passa no sentido inverso. We tend to remember the sort of peaks of enjoyment rather than the longer period of happiness. Nous avons tendance à nous souvenir des pics de plaisir plutôt que de la longue période de bonheur. Temos tendência a recordar os picos de prazer e não o período mais longo de felicidade. So he questions, to some extent, all these different evaluations of happiness, how valid they are and so forth, but what I take out of all of this is the following. Il remet donc en question, dans une certaine mesure, toutes ces différentes évaluations du bonheur, leur validité et ainsi de suite, mais ce que je retiens de tout cela est le suivant.

First of all, insofar as language learning is concerned, the more I can do with my quick learning, pre-prepared patterns that are already created in my mind, easy cognitive, the more things that I do that way the better off I am and the more I enjoy my language learning. Tout d'abord, en ce qui concerne l'apprentissage des langues, plus je peux faire de choses avec mon apprentissage rapide, des schémas préparés à l'avance qui sont déjà créés dans mon esprit, des connaissances faciles, plus je fais de choses de cette manière, mieux je me porte et plus j'apprécie mon apprentissage des langues.

We had someone at our forum at LingQ come on because at LingQ every time one of our users goes to a dictionary, whichever dictionary and selects a meaning for a word from Spanish into English, that's cashed in the system. Nous avons fait appel à un membre du forum de LingQ, car chaque fois qu'un de nos utilisateurs consulte un dictionnaire, quel qu'il soit, et sélectionne la signification d'un mot de l'espagnol vers l'anglais, il est pris en compte dans le système. Tivemos uma pessoa no nosso fórum do LingQ, porque no LingQ sempre que um dos nossos utilizadores vai a um dicionário, seja ele qual for, e selecciona um significado para uma palavra de espanhol para inglês, isso é descontado no sistema. Not all of those hints are necessarily appropriate and they don't provide you information on the tense or the conjugations and so forth, so someone was saying this is not valid. We need to have all the conjugations there. We need to have this, that and the other. Precisamos de ter isto, aquilo e aquilo outro.

I say well, not for me. Je réponds que ce n'est pas mon cas.

Really, I just want to focus on the content that I'm reading and listening to. Na verdade, só quero concentrar-me no conteúdo que estou a ler e a ouvir. So I get a suggestion of roughly what the word means and then I try to piece it together from the context. J'ai donc une idée de la signification du mot et j'essaie de la reconstituer à partir du contexte. That's really all I want. I don't want to bother myself with all the conjugations and stuff. I know from experience that I tend to forget that stuff pretty quickly, so I'd rather just focus on the easy cognitive things. Je sais par expérience que j'ai tendance à oublier ces choses-là assez rapidement, alors je préfère me concentrer sur les choses cognitives faciles. Okay, ‘roughly' means that; therefore, in this content it seems to mean this. D'accord, "à peu près" signifie que ; par conséquent, dans ce contenu, il semble signifier ceci. So I'm kind of getting some sense out of the context without having to think about it too much. J'arrive donc à saisir le sens du contexte sans avoir à trop y réfléchir.

If I listen to it, I can listen to it while I'm doing the dishes.

I don't have to focus on trying to remember anything, it's just easy cognitive stuff. When I'm speaking the language, I just go to that easy cognitive, whatever reflex I have built up in there. Lorsque je parle la langue, je me contente d'utiliser ce réflexe cognitif facile, quel qu'il soit, que j'ai développé en moi. Quando estou a falar a língua, vou simplesmente para esse cognitivo fácil, qualquer que seja o reflexo que tenha desenvolvido. Be it right, be it wrong, that's what I go with. I don't worry too much about trying to remember the rules, is this correct or not correct? I find if we can develop our knowledge of the language, as Krashen says through massive listening and reading, we develop these patterns. Je trouve que si nous pouvons développer notre connaissance de la langue, comme le dit Krashen, en écoutant et en lisant massivement, nous développons ces schémas. We develop sort of these intuitive reactions, some of which are right, some of which are wrong. Nous développons des réactions intuitives, dont certaines sont justes et d'autres erronées.

Kahneman in his book makes the point that a lot of our intuitive views on things are false, wrong or distorted. Dans son livre, Kahneman souligne que beaucoup de nos opinions intuitives sur les choses sont fausses, erronées ou déformées. No seu livro, Kahneman defende que muitas das nossas opiniões intuitivas sobre as coisas são falsas, erradas ou distorcidas.

It doesn't matter. We need these. Precisamos disto. We operate on the basis of these intuitive reactions, this quick thinking we have. I think the same is true of language. Penso que o mesmo se aplica à língua. We need to develop that side of it. Nous devons développer cet aspect. Precisamos de desenvolver essa vertente. Personally, the more I rely on the slow think, work it through, analyze and stuff, the less enjoyment I have in my language learning and I think the less well I speak. Personnellement, plus je me fie à la lenteur, à la réflexion, à l'analyse, etc., moins j'éprouve de plaisir à apprendre une langue et moins je parle bien. Pessoalmente, quanto mais me baseio na lentidão para pensar, trabalhar, analisar e assim por diante, menos prazer tenho na minha aprendizagem de línguas e penso que menos bem falo. So that's one thing that comes out of it. C'est donc une chose qui en découle. É uma coisa que resulta disso.

The other thing he mentions is that when we look at what makes us happy, one of the things is the ability to focus on the moment we are in.

We can't be happy if we're studying French and we think we should be studying Korean. Nous ne pouvons pas être heureux si nous étudions le français et que nous pensons que nous devrions étudier le coréen. Não podemos ser felizes se estivermos a estudar francês e acharmos que devíamos estar a estudar coreano. We have to totally savor the moment, savor the language that we are studying. Temos de saborear totalmente o momento, saborear a língua que estamos a estudar. If we would rather be out dancing, then we should be out dancing. Si nous préférons sortir danser, nous devons le faire. Se preferirmos estar a dançar, então devemos estar a dançar. The idea that you savor the moment you're in is important to achieving happiness and I think the same is true in language learning. L'idée de savourer le moment présent est importante pour atteindre le bonheur et je pense qu'il en va de même pour l'apprentissage des langues. You have to, basically, commit yourself to the task at hand and enjoy the task at hand, derive pleasure from the task at hand rather than thinking that you're doing something that's going to bring you some benefits later on. Vous devez, en fait, vous engager dans la tâche à accomplir et apprécier cette tâche, en tirer du plaisir plutôt que de penser que vous faites quelque chose qui vous apportera des avantages plus tard. Basicamente, temos de nos empenhar na tarefa que temos em mãos e desfrutar da tarefa que temos em mãos, retirar prazer da tarefa que temos em mãos, em vez de pensarmos que estamos a fazer algo que nos trará benefícios mais tarde. It's unpleasant, it's hard work and you're struggling and stuff, but you're hoping that somehow this is going to get you to where you want to be. C'est désagréable, c'est un travail difficile et vous luttez, mais vous espérez que, d'une manière ou d'une autre, cela vous mènera là où vous voulez être. É desagradável, é um trabalho árduo e estamos a lutar e assim por diante, mas esperamos que, de alguma forma, isto nos leve até onde queremos estar.

I've found that if the approach to language learning is this is fun, I'm enjoying listening to whatever it is, I'm enjoying reading it, I'm enjoying being ‘in the language', ‘in the moment', that that's really all you need to do without thinking of where it's going to lead to. J'ai découvert que si l'approche de l'apprentissage des langues est ludique, que j'aime écouter, lire, être "dans la langue", "dans l'instant", c'est tout ce qu'il faut faire sans se demander où cela va nous mener. Descobri que, se a abordagem à aprendizagem de línguas for divertida, estou a gostar de ouvir o que quer que seja, estou a gostar de ler, estou a gostar de estar "na língua", "no momento", isso é realmente tudo o que precisamos de fazer sem pensar onde isso nos vai levar.

When you do occasionally have that sense that you've made a major step forward, which we every so often feel even though for long periods of time we're not improving, when there are moments when you think you do, then you should really savor those moments without worrying about the mistakes that you made, without worrying about whether you can remember endings of verbs and stuff. Lorsque vous avez parfois l'impression d'avoir fait un grand pas en avant, ce que nous ressentons souvent même si pendant de longues périodes nous ne progressons pas, lorsque vous avez des moments où vous pensez que c'est le cas, vous devriez vraiment savourer ces moments sans vous soucier des erreurs que vous avez commises, sans vous soucier de savoir si vous pouvez vous souvenir de la fin des verbes et d'autres choses encore. 당신이 때때로 당신이 생각하는 순간이있을 때, 우리가 오랜 시간 동안 개선하지 않더라도 우리 모두가 자주 느끼는 큰 진보를했다고 생각할 때, 당신은 정말로해야합니다. 동사와 물건의 끝을 기억할 수 있는지에 대해 걱정하지 않고 실수를 걱정하지 않고 그 순간을 맛보십시오. None of that really matters.

I guess, really, it may not be very clear. Acho que, na verdade, pode não ser muito claro.

I think I have to go back and read the book again and I would be very happy to discuss this with some of you who may choose to read the book. 다시 돌아가서 책을 다시 읽어야 할 것 같고, 이 책을 읽으실 분들과 함께 토론할 수 있으면 정말 기쁩니다. Acho que tenho de voltar a ler o livro e terei todo o gosto em discutir este assunto com alguns de vós que decidam ler o livro. Again, I'll show you the book here Thinking, Fast and Slow , Danielle Kahneman. Mais uma vez, vou mostrar-vos o livro Thinking, Fast and Slow , de Danielle Kahneman. I think there's a lot in there that I have to go back and read again and again, which demonstrates just how faulty a lot of our thinking is, but that's the way we are. Je pense qu'il y a beaucoup de choses que je dois relire encore et encore, qui montrent à quel point notre façon de penser est erronée, mais c'est ainsi que nous sommes. Penso que há muita coisa aí que tenho de voltar a ler uma e outra vez, o que demonstra como muito do nosso pensamento é defeituoso, mas é assim que somos.

The other big thing in Kahneman is his emphasis on luck. L'autre point fort de Kahneman est l'importance qu'il accorde à la chance. O outro aspeto importante de Kahneman é a sua ênfase na sorte.

In any success luck has a major role to play. Dans toute réussite, la chance joue un rôle majeur. Em qualquer caso de sucesso, a sorte tem um papel importante a desempenhar. Therefore, if we have a string of success, there's every likelihood that this will be followed by a string of failures or vice-versa. Par conséquent, si nous connaissons une série de succès, il est très probable qu'elle sera suivie d'une série d'échecs ou vice-versa. Por conseguinte, se tivermos uma série de sucessos, é muito provável que se siga uma série de fracassos ou vice-versa. Because luck is such a big factor, there is this effect of what he calls ‘the regression to the mean'. Uma vez que a sorte é um fator tão importante, existe este efeito a que ele chama "regressão à média". Inevitably, statistically if you've had a lot of success through luck, you're going to have some periods of less success and so we need to accept that, as well. Inevitavelmente, em termos estatísticos, se tivermos muito sucesso graças à sorte, vamos ter alguns períodos de menor sucesso e, por isso, temos de aceitar esse facto também. There are a lot of lessons to life in that book. At times it seems a bit cut and dry, statistical analysis, prospect theory, decision-making theory and stuff like that, but I think there's a lot there that's valid in general and, in particular, valid for language learning. Parfois, cela semble un peu sec, l'analyse statistique, la théorie des perspectives, la théorie de la prise de décision et d'autres choses de ce genre, mais je pense qu'il y a beaucoup de choses qui sont valables en général et, en particulier, valables pour l'apprentissage des langues. Por vezes, parece um pouco secante, análise estatística, teoria da prospeção, teoria da tomada de decisões e coisas do género, mas penso que há muita coisa que é válida em geral e, em particular, válida para a aprendizagem de línguas.

So it's kind of a bit of a fuzzy rant today, but I think there is something there, at least in my own experience. Por isso, hoje é um pouco confuso, mas penso que há qualquer coisa, pelo menos na minha própria experiência.

Those people who like to get into the nitty-gritty of grammar and enjoy doing that, that's their thing, they're in the flow and they're enjoying it, by all means, go for it, but I think a lot of people don't. As pessoas que gostam de se debruçar sobre os pormenores da gramática e que gostam de o fazer, que é o que fazem, que estão a fluir e que estão a gostar, podem fazê-lo, mas penso que muitas pessoas não gostam. Even if you don't, there are so many ways you can enjoy language learning where you're not worried about where you stand vis-à-vis other people. Même si ce n'est pas le cas, il existe de nombreuses façons de profiter de l'apprentissage d'une langue sans se soucier de sa position par rapport aux autres. Mesmo que não o faça, há muitas formas de desfrutar da aprendizagem de línguas sem ter de se preocupar com a sua posição em relação às outras pessoas. You're not worried about where you stand vis-à-vis some future goal you have. Vous ne vous préoccupez pas de savoir où vous en êtes par rapport à un objectif futur que vous vous êtes fixé. Não está preocupado com a sua posição em relação a um objetivo futuro que tem. You're just enjoying being in the moment. Vous appréciez simplement le moment présent. You're enjoying this sort of cognitive ease of just listening and reading in the knowledge that in fact it's building up a lot of experience in your brain, a lot of patterns that eventually will become intuition. Vous appréciez cette sorte de facilité cognitive qui consiste à écouter et à lire en sachant qu'en fait, votre cerveau acquiert beaucoup d'expérience, beaucoup de schémas qui deviendront un jour de l'intuition.

Some may be wrong, some may be right, but you can flow with that intuition and you're building up an ability to react easily, quickly and even in a way that you can multitask in the language and that that's happiness in language learning. Certains peuvent se tromper, d'autres peuvent avoir raison, mais vous pouvez vous laisser guider par cette intuition et vous développez une capacité à réagir facilement, rapidement et même d'une manière qui vous permet d'être multitâche dans la langue et c'est le bonheur dans l'apprentissage d'une langue.

It's not more complicated than that and you don't have to worry about whether you're a B1, B2, C1, TOEIC, TOEFL and all the rest of it. Ce n'est pas plus compliqué que cela et vous n'avez pas à vous soucier de savoir si vous êtes B1, B2, C1, TOEIC, TOEFL et tout le reste. That will all come of its own if you can just invest of yourself into the language in this sort of natural learning process. Cela viendra tout seul si vous pouvez vous investir dans la langue dans cette sorte de processus d'apprentissage naturel.

I'm not sure any of this makes sense, but there you go.

I look forward to your comments, bye for now.