How to Start Talking in a New Language

Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here. And, uh, I'm back indoors because it's sometimes windy outside and the sun is very bright and so it's a bit less reliable. So I'm back indoors. I've hooked up my microphone to my computer where I'm recording and using Audacity rather than relying on the recording of the iPhone.

I hope this produces better sound quality. I want to talk today and maybe in the next couple of videos about talking and about mistakes, because all of us, when we learn a language, we eventually, we want to speak, uh, if we're in a situation where we're able to use whatever limited amount of the language we have, you know, we'll typically do so.

Certainly when I was in Japan, as soon as I could even say anything to anyone I would try to do so. In Vancouver, if I come across an Iranian speaker, I'll try and say something in Persian, So that's the main goal, but you all know if you follow my videos, that I'm very much a proponent of input-based learning, listening and reading.

And the reason for that is simply that when we're in a conversation and we don't understand what people are saying, and we don't have any words, it's, it's painful. So, you know, I have started speaking more in Persian and in Arabic, and I've gone through periods where I had a lot of online sessions, and online sessions with tutors are great.

Actually, it's a phenomenal capability that we have today. And I want to salute italki which has a wide range of teachers in a tremendous range of languages. So I can connect with people, for example, in Iran. Uh, from different cities. So I'm getting to know different cities in Iran, and they talk about where they live and the food they eat and, and all the while I'm speaking and in order to speak well, you do have to speak a lot.

There's no getting around it. And, uh, as you continue with your input-based activities, at least that's my strategy. As I listen more and I read more and I acquire more words and I understand more then more and more I want to speak. And as I go to speak, I, I discover that, um, a lot of the words that I've learned, I can't remember them when I go to speak, but the more I speak, the better I get at speaking.

So we do have to speak a lot. And I even think that in order to speak a language really well and not be in danger of losing it you have to possibly spend time in the country where the language is spoken. You need to speak so much that, that you can eventually get as a sufficient hold on that language that it won't, it won't be frittered away by, by lack of use, because I know that when I go back into my Greek, Mini Stories are, uh, you know, Mini Stories in Romanian that there's a lot of words that I'm going to have to learn again, because I've forgotten them, which isn't a problem to me because I have them there.

I can go back to them. When I learn them again, I will eventually know them better. However speaking is a phenomenal way of learning the language. Now, some people suggest you should speak from day one. I've never quite understood that because day one you know nothing. So even if you engage in a conversation, all you're doing is, is, is, well, you can't say anything.

Uh, the person you're speaking to has to explain everything that they're saying. And my experience has been that when I'm in a conversation and especially if I don't understand very much, and then the tutor tells me this is the word for such-and-such, I can't remember it. It's impossible to remember. Uh, I find that it's much more useful for me to hear it than to read it and hear it again and read it again and gradually allow the brain to get used to the language that way.

But when you start speaking, whenever that may be early in your learning or later in your learning, listening is a big part of speaking, paying attention to what the speaker, and especially if it's a native speaker, is saying. So it's still very much an input-based activity and the less of the language you already have in you, the more of an input-based activity the speaking is, but it still can be quite painful, uh, if you are with people and you simply don't understand anything. I guess there are people who believe in this speak from day one and who practice it. I don't know how that works. Uh, I have been, you know, uh, had, uh, tutoring engagements at an early stage of learning a language and I find it painful. I can't wait until the session is over because I can't really understand what they're saying.

And I can't find any words. At least if I have learned the words through my input activities and can't remember them, at least I have a hope of eventually remembering them, but if I have no idea what these words are, and then they are given to me in the class, there is no way I can remember them. So of course, one of the things that I do in my sessions with tutors is I asked them the tutors to, uh, produce, uh, a text file with a list of 10 or 15 or however many words they can. Ideally they do it during the lesson.

So it doesn't become an extra 10, 15 minutes work for them. All the words... can't be all, but the words that I used incorrectly, or couldn't remember, or wasn't able to use or phrases, if they can create a list of these 10, 15, 20, and in an ideal scenario, record them, then send them to me. Then I import these as lessons into LingQ and, and, you know, I can then review these over and over again.

I can review. Uh, you know, the, these reports from a lesson two months prior and gradually get to know these words and start to use them. But so the talking it's important to talk. I think it's exciting now that I've spoken to a couple of tutors in Iran recently, one lives in Esfahan one lives by the Caspian sea.

See there again, she gave me, we must've mentioned the name of the city where she lives three or four times. I haven't seen it written out yet. ... maybe I can't remember it. You know, we have to recognize that it's not just because I'm old, you can't remember stuff like that. Uh, and so, but at any rate, I have a tutor from Esfahan, a tutor from up there near the Caspian sea.

I tutor from Tehran. The tutor from up North, she is originally from Larestan, which is somewhere else in Iran. So you're talking to people, you're getting an understanding of the country, of what is going on in that country, of the geography of the country. You're using words, you know, ideally you're using words that you've learned.

You're picking up a few words. You're practicing the art of speaking because to speak well, you have to practice speaking. Uh, you, can't just all of a sudden stop, you know, you've been listening and reading now and engaging, you know, with all the good things that, that I do at LingQ and you just go there and start speaking.

It doesn't work that way. However, my experience has been that you can activate it pretty quickly. And very often I will study a language with the purpose of going to the country. And I did that in Romania. I did that for Greek. I did it with Czech and with Russian, Ukrainian. And when you're there and you're able to... You're sort of.

Immersed in it and, and, and working hard to try to keep up with the conversation that there is a sort of a white heat there that, you know, pushes you forward to that next level. But, but you have to have a certain minimum in order to take advantage of that, say going into the country. And similarly, before you can engage with a tutor in a meaningful way, in my opinion, you have to have invested in, uh, you know, listening and reading.

And then these, uh, sessions where you're talking, they are becoming an opportunity then for you to go back to your listening and reading and pay attention to things that you missed. So it's important to talk. I don't think it matters when you talk. Some people like to talk early. I don't think there's such a thing as talking from day one, because someone has to give you somebody say, here's how we say "hello, how are you?" Then you say, "hello, how are you?" It has to start with listening. It doesn't start with speaking. And so the only question is how much listening and reading do you want to do before you start speaking? And that will depend on people's inclinations, that will depend on their situation, on their needs, but at whatever point you started speaking, a big part of the speaking is still listening and paying attention and getting the language into you.

Even as you practice the art of speaking and get better at retrieving the words and phrases that you have. So that's all I wanted to say about speaking, and I'm going to leave a couple of videos you might look at that are sort of relevant to this.