How to Get Started Learning a Language

Hi there, Steve Kaufman here, and today I wanna talk about getting started

and some of the common proverbs or expressions there are around getting

started and how I think we should get started in learning a language.

There is an expression that Aristotle quotes or quoted, uh, referring to a

proverb that already existed in ancient Greece, some 300 odd years uh, BCE and

that is well begun is the job half done.

So it's important to begin the job well, and then you'll do the job well.

There's another expression that comes from about the same period or a little

earlier attributed to Laozi in, in, uh, Chinese classics, which says the

thousand li, mile call it the thousand mile march begins with the first step.

So two different proverb talking about the importance of getting started.

Uh, I thought about this because last little while I've kind of not

been doing much language learning, haven't done much with my Farsi, uh,

so I don't listen to content, then I don't speak to my Iranian tutor.

And uh, that kind of was the situation for quite a few days.

And then I had to clean up the kitchen.

There was quite a big mess there.

So I'll put on my Iranian history series and the thing is, once you

get started again, all of a sudden everything comes back to life.

So now I'm interested again in learning Persian, and then I say,

yeah, I'm gonna book another session with Sahra online, with my tutor.

So sometimes, you know, you can hang back and the same is true of

exercising, hang back and not do something for something for a while.

Convince yourself you don't wanna do it or whatever.

Once you get started you're back into it again.

So it's very important to take that first step.

As Laozi said, the first step on that thousand mile thousand li march gets

you going, and once you get going, chances are you'll stay with it.

Hopefully get some good habits.

Also, getting back to Aristotle's, uh, the proverb that he quoted well

begun is the job have done, and his inference was that if you start something

properly, you're likely to complete it.

So assuming we want to get into language learning or we wanna get back to the

language who we were learning, so then what is properly, what is well done?

Well, in terms of a new language, I'm convinced that our mini

stories at LingQ, you won't be surprised to hear me say that, to

me that's the place to get started.

You shouldn't get started on lists of colors or lists, you know, um, members

of the family or any, or people, uh, you know, at the train station or any

of the traditional stuff that's put in language, uh, books, you shouldn't

try upfront to understand the grammar.

You can maybe have an overview, which is easy enough to do.

I mean, you can just Google or go to chat GPT and ask for, you know, a summary

of the basics of Punjabi grammar and you'll get it, but you won't remember it.

But it's kind of a bit of an overview, which is fine to have.

Which is fine to have, but really to get started, well begun, you

have to get into the language.

You have to get into content which has a lot of repetition and

hopefully high frequency verbs.

As I've said before, the reason I think our mini stories are so

superior to most beginner content is that there's so much repetition.

Uh, the same high frequency verbs repeat within each story, and

they continue showing up in other stories over the full 60 stories.

Whereas typically in a beginner book, you're moving from the train

station to going through customs to visiting the doctor, uh, post office,

and the vocabulary doesn't repeat.

It doesn't repeat within each story or within each lesson.

It doesn't repeat across the lessons.

And we need so much repetition initially to get a sense of the language that I

think that that is the place to start.

Not super boring stu...

hello, my name is...

not necessary.

It'll show up.

Uh, there's no need to, you know, at the very beginning, how old are you?

It'll come up.

And how often in conversation or in listening to the language do you

actually need to say how old you are?

Un unless you are deliberately creating a conversation for the

sake of having a conversation, then that's likely to come up.

But in reality, it doesn't come up that often.

And if it does come up, if you have a good base in the language, you'll quickly

learn how to say, how old are you?

Or, you know, whatever, however many years old, it's far better

to sort of jump in midstream.

Midstream, albeit shallow water, like the mini stories with a lot

of repetition, but it is midstream.

It's into the language.

You're starting to absorb the language.

You're listening to the language.

You're reading the language.

You're looking up words, you're listening.

Again, that's how you get into learning a language and if you

stay with it for a few months, you actually get a sense of the language.

And with that sense of the language language, you can now start to make sense

of some of the grammatical explanations.

Uh, don't try to, you know, study conjugation tables, declension tables,

remember rules, all of that is gonna set you back, discourage you, make you

think the language is very difficult.

Just get into the language.

You know, I can mix my metaphors here, you know, jump right in,

but then I said shallow water.

So you don't wanna jump into shallow water, but get going into sort of

the mainstream of the language, albeit with relatively simple, high

frequency vocabulary, and you'll get a head start on learning the language.

The language will be well begun, and therefore, eventually will

be hopefully a job well done.

So just thought I would share with you that sense of the importance of getting

started and getting started the right way.

Thanks for listening.

Bye for now.