Reading May Be the Secret of My Success in Language Learning
hi there Steve Kaufmann here today I want
to talk about a subject reading and
language learning it's kind of like like
breaking news oh by the way you want to
I know many of you who watch my videos
do it to improve your English
you'll be able to click through to a
lesson and link to study this initially
it'll have the captions from the YouTube
video and this will be replaced from you
have the proper transcript so all of
these videos that I make can be an
opportunity for you to work on your
English but breaking news today special
report a new way of recording
information has been discovered which is
one step you know more advanced than mp3
players or mp3 technology or recording
and voice and listening and stuff it's
actually writing things down and reading
it like it's called reading it can be
present or written and then you read it
and it's a phenomenally efficient way of
acquiring information really you know
and renewable like the paper is made of
you know chips from sawmills from trees
that are harvested in and then burned
another way so reading is good reading
is really good and the reason I'm
talking about that today is is several
reasons and I'm gonna get into several
aspects of it first of all there was
someone who commented here in Japanese
to my Japanese video where I said that
Japanese people who are learning English
might want to consider learning Chinese
as a way of making their brains more
flexible and that will eventually make
their English learning more efficient
because they won't be sort of fighting
the same difficulties they'll be
expanded their minds will be expanded
and so one of the commenters here
commented in Japanese saying that's all
well and good but English is very useful
I can communicate with so many people if
I learn other languages like I use
Chinese
as an example it doesn't have to be
Chinese it can be any language learning
a third language makes the brain more
flexible and this person said well
that's fine and then the but English
enables me to communicate with the whole
world why would I learn another language
so that was one comment and there was
also this debate we've had I did my
video about Arabic and should we learn
modern Standard Arabic or similar in the
various regional variations or variants
of Arabic so hitting those two things
you know why would I I'm a speaker being
respected if we go back to this the
japanese commenter who was saying you
know all we really need is English right
with other in any other language well
following that logic then Amos Peters
needn't learn any language and and all
and so and the Japanese commentary
commenter also said you know I have
nobody to speak to in these other
languages why would I learn lips in
Tokyo he probably has trouble finding
anyone to speak to an English let alone
these other languages so why do I learn
languages why am i working on Persian
Arabic and Turkish a big part of it is
reading I like to read in the language I
like to learn about those cultures I'd
like to learn about their history their
language it's all part of us being human
beings and and track I have this almost
giddy sense of power when I'm reading
about these other cultures and histories
in their language so I don't have to
find an Arabic speaker in Vancouver to
enjoy reading about Arabic history or
and of course even in English because
once I get into the language now I'm
reading a book on on the Middle East and
stuff like this it gets you ink it bras
your overall perspective again reading
okay so I can read and if you're reading
in Arabic by large you're reading in
Standard Arabic so my view there is if
you're gonna learn Arabic I say learn
standard our
learn to resend Arabic every hour Arabic
speaking native speaker of Arabic reads
standard Arabic once you have that as a
base it's not difficult to learn the
other variants to be government least
able to understand them and then and I
mentioned that we're going to have
content here that's going to make that
even easier then it's easy enough to do
if you have that base in standard Arabic
so reading is a big reason why I focus
on standard Arabic reading it's a big
reason why English speakers should
should might find it interesting to
learn other languages and people say in
Japan or another non-english speaking
countries who learn English may find it
rewarding to learn other languages other
than English because they they'll be
able to read in those languages and
reading is a great way to acquire
knowledge it's also a great way to
acquire words and I find that my
listening which is 70 percent of my
learning activity because it's so easy
to do that's where I become familiar
with the language comfortable with the
language understand it better start to
feel confident that I can use it but I
think the words I acquire them more
through reading so reading is powerful
reading is not only powerful for
language learning reading is powerful in
life there are so many examples you can
find stories on the internet about
reading ability is the best predictor of
professional success of academic success
it's the fastest way to acquire
information that's not to say that
people who don't read well can't do well
in life they do I know people I've
worked with people who didn't read well
he didn't ready dyslexic or they maybe
have knowledge he teaches at school or
for whatever reason they don't read well
and yet they were extremely successful
managers they got interested in things
maybe mechanical or some other aspect of
things they learned that are in through
experience so
if you can't read well that doesn't
exclude you from being successful I mean
the President of the United States
doesn't read well now probably if he
hadn't been born into a lot of money his
lack of reading wouldn't have taken I'm
very far but that's another subject so
reading and and it's a big equalizer you
don't have to go to Yale or Harvard to
become a good reader you begin by being
a good reader early and I've often
complained that that where they teach
reading they focus so much on details
they're gonna try to teach the kids to
think critically they ask some questions
before reading and after reading and to
me that is all nonsense it just takes
away the funnel reading the way you get
people to read is to somehow enable them
to enjoy reading if they Jory they
already bored and the more they read the
better they get therefore don't decide
for kids what they're gonna read it's
like what I'm learning a language and
I'm told you're gonna do this story on
you know festivals and customs are the
names of all the different members of
the family or whatever it might be
not interested give me something that
I'm interested in and typically that'll
be something that I'm familiar with so I
think in language right we should begin
with things that we're familiar with how
people live hello good morning I've got
to go to the store but don't take it too
far away from things that were familiar
with and that we enjoy the same with
reading getting young people to read or
even older people to read give them
things they're interested in don't ask
them a bunch of questions comprehension
questions pre reading questions post
reading pretzels it doesn't matter if
they understand everything they read
what matters is that they continue
reading so if they're interested in
machines or if they're interested in
sports or music let them read about that
and they'll be more and more and the
more they read the better they get I've
often felt that link would be an ideal
tool to improve literacy where people
are struggling because they have a limit
vocabulary for a variety of reasons or
they might be dyslexic and gets sort of
to function in this sort of linked
environment of sound combined with
reading combined with saving words to a
database all the things we do at Linc I
think would be helpful for struggling
readers I'd be happy to make it
available free of charge
for any kind of a literacy program
because literacy is such a big part of
our success in life as I said not for
everyone but statistically if you go to
prisons it's overwhelmingly people with
low literacy you know people at the
upper end of the income not everyone but
overwhelmingly statistically on average
are people who read better so reading is
super powerful and I think in terms of
education educating our populations in
every country there's a good twenty
thirty percent of the population that
doesn't mean very well more should be
done at an early age or later in a
remedial way to help those people but
getting back to the first point I study
Standard Arabic because I want to read
Arabic I think people whose Mike
retirement is English should learn other
languages even if they don't have a lot
of people that can speak to but that's
their choice of course I shouldn't say
people should I think it's rewarding and
similarly for speakers of languages
other than English as a native language
there are many good reasons for them to
still go and learn 3rd 4th 5th languages
a because it broadens their there's sort
of linguistic flexibility but also
because there's this tremendous reward
of learning about these other cultures
and a lot of that is required acquired
through reading so remember you can
listen to this
rent late and learn any vocabulary you
might want to learn and also if you want
my emails on 10 tips to language
learning you can click through for that
as well thank you for listening when a
little bit longer today bye for now
Oh last thing I've heard complaints
about my microphone I don't know what
the best thing to do is right now using
the lapel mic
I did try them other mic but don't sin
to my iphone didn't work very well when
I get back to my Cooper we're gonna look
at this and see what we can come up with
if there are any suggestions I would be
very open to hearing about them thank
you
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