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Steve's YouTube Videos, Learning a Language Involves Indirect Motivation

Learning a Language Involves Indirect Motivation

You have to find something to like in the language you're learning. Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here once again talking about language learning, and I want to talk about what I would call indirect motivation. Remember, if you enjoy these videos, please subscribe, click on the bell for notifications. And if you follow me on a podcast service, please leave a review.

We do appreciate it. So we know that we need to be motivated. I say this all the time. I hope my videos are motivating. And everyone understands that if you have a motivated student, when it comes to language learning and probably anything else, that person will learn on their own. So motivation is the key, but how do we get motivated?

So, you know, I was thinking that, uh, you know, I mentioned... I did a video about my interest in history. So I ended up motivated, motivating myself to learn a language because I'm motivated to learn history. So in a sense, the learning of the language is almost an indirect motivation. It's not because I want to learn the language it's I'm interested in history and therefore I end up learning the language and, you know, that's true with so much in life.

Um, if you say, I want to make a lot of money, uh, maybe you first have to provide a service, uh, which other people are willing to pay for, uh, or maybe you have to be so skilled at what you do, that you can generate a revenue stream or you have to be so knowledgeable, in other words, you have to be good at what you do so that the direct motivation, even though what you want to do out there is make money you have to first build up your knowledge base, your skill base. Uh, and you have to have an attitude that says I'm gonna deliver, you know, value. Okay. I'm gonna, if you want to be a good, uh, Shoemaker to take a simple example, you, you, you can't just be motivated for money. You actually have to enjoy making shoes.

You have to... the same if you're in the job and your goal is to do well in the job and to be promoted, uh, or you're providing some service and you want to do well with your, you have a company of your own or you're working for someone else, you have to do that job well, that's the direct objective that you have to achieve.

You have to do that well in order to achieve the sort of indirect, uh, you know, goal, that will be the consequence of your commitment to doing the job well, or to making sure you have the skills and the knowledge that you need in order to achieve that longer term goal. Even in personal relationships uh, you can't just go up to someone and say, I want to be your friend, or I want to be your lover.

Uh, you first have to invest some time and effort into getting to know that person, uh, giving that person a chance to get to know you. Uh, they have to like you, you have to like them, you know, at that level, you build up a connection and emotional connection or a connection of respect, uh, which then will lead to the result, the long-term but in a way indirect result, that that person and you will become friends or lovers or whatever the case may be.

So there's no sort of short circuit there's no, you know, jumping ahead of yourself, you have to first find that short term direct goal that you can focus on that's going to lead you to your longer term goal. Maybe I'm not making any sense here. When I bring it back to language learning, what does it mean?

You have to find something to like in the language you're learning. Uh, if you cannot find anything to like, anything of interest, you're going to have a very tough time. You can't just say, I would like to be fluent in English because I need it for my job. I would like to be fluent in German or Chinese, because it's going to be good for my career.

You actually have to find something in Chinese culture, in German culture and eh, whatever Japanese, French, Russia, something that you like. You don't have to like everything. Uh, similarly it helps if you find a friend, but you don't have to like all Chinese, Russians, Japanese, French, you name it. But you have to find some people that you like, you have to find some aspects of the language that you like.

I often quote this expression in French... in other words, we, our appetite develops as we are eating, but that's assume... that assumes that you're eating something that you like. So, uh, you know, you have to find that something, and that takes a bit of looking around. It takes a bit of patience and unfortunately it's often difficult.

I have found it difficult at times to find content that I'm interested in at my level in the language, because I know that if I can engage myself with content of interest, the learning of the language will look after itself. If I do enough listening and reading on things of interest, but I have to find those things of interest and in some languages that's difficult to do because you either have a lot of very uninteresting beginner material, or you have material that is, you know, intended for the native speaker and is too difficult.

And it's sort of hard to find content that's going to lead you towards the ultimate, you know, most satisfying type of material. I think that's something that we want to do better at LingQ. Uh, we're trying to bring in, uh, a greater variety of material from different sources, including YouTube, where people just have to click to get it.

They don't have to search for it so that they can kind of just fall into things of interest to them and make that commitment to learning about those things of interest, that commitment to enjoying whatever it is that they're interested in. And then recognizing that by doing that, the longer-term goal of becoming fluent in the language will take care of itself.

So, you know, it's perhaps a bit of a confusing rant here, but it's something that I have felt all along in my life, whether in my professional life, when I've often felt, if you do your job well, you can't just say, I want to succeed, I want to make money. No, you actually have to invest in providing uh, service, uh, even working for a large corporation, you have to give before you can get, you have to give more, you can't sort of "when his coffee break? ", uh, "what's in it for me? ", you actually have to make that investment in providing, you know, service or working hard or developing your skills in order to achieve that longer-term goal of success or money or whatever.

And the same with language learning. You have to commit yourself to something of interest and your devouring those things of interest and your language skills will develop as a result. So it's something that I've experienced. I don't know if this makes sense. I hope it is encouraging. And for people who maybe are at a sort of a doldrums stage where they feel they're not progressing and, uh, you know, they're not, uh, enjoying the process, try a little harder to find something that's going to turn your crank. That's going to be, you know, interesting. So that it'll take you to the final goal, which is the fluency and the comfort level in the language you're learning. So there you have it. Thank you for listening and I'll leave a couple of videos that might be of interest to you.

Thank you, bye for now.


Learning a Language Involves Indirect Motivation Das Erlernen einer Sprache ist mit indirekter Motivation verbunden Aprender un idioma implica una motivación indirecta L'apprentissage d'une langue implique une motivation indirecte 語学学習は間接的な動機付けを伴う Aprender um idioma envolve motivação indireta Изучение языка предполагает косвенную мотивацию Dil Öğrenmek Dolaylı Motivasyon İçerir 学习语言涉及间接动机 學習語言涉及間接動機

You have to find something to like in the language you're learning. Tienes que encontrar algo que te guste en el idioma que estás aprendiendo. Você tem que encontrar algo para gostar no idioma que está aprendendo. Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here once again talking about language learning, and I want to talk about what I would call indirect motivation. こんにちは、スティーブ・カウフマンがここでもう一度言語学習について話します。私が間接的な動機と呼ぶものについて話したいと思います。 Olá, Steve Kaufmann aqui mais uma vez falando sobre aprendizado de idiomas, e eu quero falar sobre o que eu chamaria de motivação indireta. Remember, if you enjoy these videos, please subscribe, click on the bell for notifications. Remember, if you enjoy these videos, please subscribe, click on the bell for notifications. Lembre-se, se você gosta desses vídeos, inscreva-se, clique no sininho para notificações. And if you follow me on a podcast service, please leave a review. E se você me seguir em um serviço de podcast, por favor, deixe um comentário.

We do appreciate it. Lo apreciamos. So we know that we need to be motivated. I say this all the time. I hope my videos are motivating. And everyone understands that if you have a motivated student, when it comes to language learning and probably anything else, that person will learn on their own. Y todos entienden que si tienes un estudiante motivado, cuando se trata de aprender idiomas y probablemente cualquier otra cosa, esa persona aprenderá por su cuenta. So motivation is the key, but how do we get motivated?

So, you know, I was thinking that, uh, you know, I mentioned... I did a video about my interest in history. So I ended up motivated, motivating myself to learn a language because I'm motivated to learn history. So in a sense, the learning of the language is almost an indirect motivation. In gewisser Weise ist das Erlernen der Sprache also fast eine indirekte Motivation. It's not because I want to learn the language it's I'm interested in history and therefore I end up learning the language and, you know, that's true with so much in life. No es porque quiera aprender el idioma, es que me interesa la historia y, por lo tanto, termino aprendiendo el idioma y, ya sabes, eso es cierto con tantas cosas en la vida.

Um, if you say, I want to make a lot of money, uh, maybe you first have to provide a service, uh, which other people are willing to pay for, uh, or maybe you have to be so skilled at what you do, that you can generate a revenue stream or you have to be so knowledgeable, in other words, you have to be good at what you do so that the direct motivation, even though what you want to do out there is make money you have to first build up your knowledge base, your skill base. Um, si dices, quiero ganar mucho dinero, eh, tal vez primero tengas que proporcionar un servicio, eh, por el que otras personas estén dispuestas a pagar, eh, o tal vez tengas que ser tan hábil en lo que quieres. hacer, que puede generar un flujo de ingresos o tiene que estar tan bien informado, en otras palabras, tiene que ser bueno en lo que hace para que la motivación directa, aunque lo que quiere hacer es ganar dinero, tiene para construir primero su base de conocimientos, su base de habilidades. Uh, and you have to have an attitude that says I'm gonna deliver, you know, value. Uh, y tienes que tener una actitud que diga que voy a ofrecer, ya sabes, valor. Okay. De acuerdo. I'm gonna, if you want to be a good, uh, Shoemaker to take a simple example, you, you, you can't just be motivated for money. Voy a, si quieres ser un buen, eh, Shoemaker para tomar un ejemplo simple, usted, usted, usted no puede ser motivado sólo por dinero. You actually have to enjoy making shoes. Realmente tienes que disfrutar haciendo zapatos.

You have to... the same if you're in the job and your goal is to do well in the job and to be promoted, uh, or you're providing some service and you want to do well with your, you have a company of your own or you're working for someone else, you have to do that job well, that's the direct objective that you have to achieve.

You have to do that well in order to achieve the sort of indirect, uh, you know, goal, that will be the consequence of your commitment to doing the job well, or to making sure you have the skills and the knowledge that you need in order to achieve that longer term goal. Tienes que hacerlo bien para alcanzar el tipo de objetivo indirecto que será consecuencia de tu compromiso de hacer bien el trabajo, o de asegurarte de que tienes las habilidades y los conocimientos que necesitas para alcanzar ese objetivo a largo plazo. Even in personal relationships uh, you can't just go up to someone and say, I want to be your friend, or I want to be your lover.

Uh, you first have to invest some time and effort into getting to know that person, uh, giving that person a chance to get to know you. Uh, they have to like you, you have to like them, you know, at that level, you build up a connection and emotional connection or a connection of respect, uh, which then will lead to the result, the long-term but in a way indirect result, that that person and you will become friends or lovers or whatever the case may be. Uh, tienes que gustarles, tienes que gustarles, ya sabes, en ese nivel, construyes una conexión y una conexión emocional o una conexión de respeto, eh, que luego conducirá al resultado, a largo plazo, pero de manera indirecta como resultado, que esa persona y tú se hagan amigos o amantes o lo que sea el caso.

So there's no sort of short circuit there's no, you know, jumping ahead of yourself, you have to first find that short term direct goal that you can focus on that's going to lead you to your longer term goal. Maybe I'm not making any sense here. Vielleicht mache ich hier keinen Sinn. When I bring it back to language learning, what does it mean? Cuando lo traigo de vuelta al aprendizaje de idiomas, ¿qué significa?

You have to find something to like in the language you're learning. Uh, if you cannot find anything to like, anything of interest, you're going to have a very tough time. Uh, si no puedes encontrar nada que te guste, algo de interés, vas a tener un momento muy difícil. You can't just say, I would like to be fluent in English because I need it for my job. I would like to be fluent in German or Chinese, because it's going to be good for my career.

You actually have to find something in Chinese culture, in German culture and eh, whatever Japanese, French, Russia, something that you like. You don't have to like everything. No tiene que gustarte todo. Uh, similarly it helps if you find a friend, but you don't have to like all Chinese, Russians, Japanese, French, you name it. But you have to find some people that you like, you have to find some aspects of the language that you like.

I often quote this expression in French... in other words, we, our appetite develops as we are eating, but that's assume... that assumes that you're eating something that you like. A menudo cito esta expresión en francés... en otras palabras, nosotros, nuestro apetito se desarrolla a medida que vamos comiendo, pero eso es suponer... eso supone que estás comiendo algo que te gusta. So, uh, you know, you have to find that something, and that takes a bit of looking around. It takes a bit of patience and unfortunately it's often difficult.

I have found it difficult at times to find content that I'm interested in at my level in the language, because I know that if I can engage myself with content of interest, the learning of the language will look after itself. If I do enough listening and reading on things of interest, but I have to find those things of interest and in some languages that's difficult to do because you either have a lot of very uninteresting beginner material, or you have material that is, you know, intended for the native speaker and is too difficult.

And it's sort of hard to find content that's going to lead you towards the ultimate, you know, most satisfying type of material. I think that's something that we want to do better at LingQ. Uh, we're trying to bring in, uh, a greater variety of material from different sources, including YouTube, where people just have to click to get it.

They don't have to search for it so that they can kind of just fall into things of interest to them and make that commitment to learning about those things of interest, that commitment to enjoying whatever it is that they're interested in. And then recognizing that by doing that, the longer-term goal of becoming fluent in the language will take care of itself.

So, you know, it's perhaps a bit of a confusing rant here, but it's something that I have felt all along in my life, whether in my professional life, when I've often felt, if you do your job well, you can't just say, I want to succeed, I want to make money. No, you actually have to invest in providing uh, service, uh, even working for a large corporation, you have to give before you can get, you have to give more, you can't sort of "when his coffee break? ", uh, "what's in it for me? ", you actually have to make that investment in providing, you know, service or working hard or developing your skills in order to achieve that longer-term goal of success or money or whatever.

And the same with language learning. You have to commit yourself to something of interest and your devouring those things of interest and your language skills will develop as a result. So it's something that I've experienced. I don't know if this makes sense. I hope it is encouraging. And for people who maybe are at a sort of a doldrums stage where they feel they're not progressing and, uh, you know, they're not, uh, enjoying the process, try a little harder to find something that's going to turn your crank. Und für Leute, die sich vielleicht in einer Art Flaute befinden, in der sie das Gefühl haben, dass sie keine Fortschritte machen und, äh, wissen Sie, sie genießen den Prozess nicht, versuchen Sie etwas mehr, etwas zu finden, das sich ändern wird deine Kurbel. That's going to be, you know, interesting. So that it'll take you to the final goal, which is the fluency and the comfort level in the language you're learning. So there you have it. Thank you for listening and I'll leave a couple of videos that might be of interest to you.

Thank you, bye for now.