I have rushed it. I only did the reading part, but I realized, okay, it's not a priority right now. And the only reason I would ever learn Russian is to go to Kazakhstan or something.
Okay, so once, so you went harder on Mandarin at first. So, and also, like, I don't even, let's, you know, the Korean is 94,000. That's, that's like right below behind you. It's not enough. It's not enough.
Really? My opinion, if you were to check how many words are in the dictionary, okay, you got to realize there's a lot of words. For example, I think I looked it up. Mandarin has like 300,000 possible combinations of words. Japanese has 500,000 and Korean has 1 million. So that means you can, if you want to mimic the amount of work you have to do, maybe Japanese is like 1.5 times more.
So my objective was to get to 120,000 Japanese known words. And that pretty much maybe gives me the highest chance of understanding almost every single thing. I guarantee that for Japan, he's definitely in that 100,000 for sure. He just doesn't know the stats because he did all Anki.
I would pay to watch him, like, create a link account and just see how many, like, things he, like, says known to. Like, probably everything. I know a native speaker, I can guarantee with my life that they surpassed 100,000 in those languages.
I wanted to do the same thing in English. I just wanted to see, like, what words do I not know? Because I would be, you know, I feel like I would be, we would both probably, you know, known on everything pretty much. It'd have to be some really complicated, super, you know.
Medical. Yeah, it would have to be something weird, like, and even then, like, it would be, it's very easy for us to learn a new word, like, too. In English, there's about, like, 100 something thousand, 170,000 words, or some dictionary says 500,000. So English and Mandarin are about the same ballpark of how many words you need to know.
But we might be around 80,000 for English, but they claim that we, an average speaker knows 30,000, but I guarantee we probably know 80,000. The links version, because if you ever watched my three-hour video, I probably, I claimed this, that if you want to match, like, the C2 or C1 levels on the European scale, just get the links advanced 2 number and multiply it by 2.
Oh, yeah, I know it's not accurate. There's no way it's accurate. The reason why is that another frustration I have is with the freaking parsing of Japanese and the grammar. Like, they had it, it, like, at a time, it was pretty dang good.
And, um, but now they changed it, uh, and they took away, like, the simplify with AI or not simplify, but, like, um, there was an option to make it better. And for some reason, they, they have all of these grammar points. So you get so much overlap, you know, uh, attached to the same words that you already know.
So to be more efficient, I just hit known. I'm like, okay, do I know this? All right, I know it. Just like you said, how you do it. You just hit known. Like, so that's why, you know, to a person that doesn't know what link is, like, these numbers are like, there's no way he knows that much.
It's because we, you know, you don't, you don't actually know that many words. It's just, it's just a tool to help us guess how many words we potentially can know when we see it the next time. Like, it's not, it's like an 80%, we know it, and then the other 20%, not completely, because you have to see a lot more just to really let it solidify in your brain.
Exactly. Yeah, did you ever play, did you, I don't know if you're a gamer at all, but did you ever play Xbox or have Xbox or anything like that?
Yeah, yeah, I played the, I played the crap out of Halo 3, but I, back in those days when I was a kid, I wish I would have traded that for my, to, to learn language, but, uh, I, I was obsessed with gamer score.
And to me, gamer score, yeah, like, uh, like I want, I don't know if you're familiar, but whenever you get achievements, your gamer score rises, basically. It's just a number that, uh, achievement, achievement will be worth a certain amount of gamer score.
So, you know, people would flex, like, oh, I have 100,000 gamer score, and you know that they, they had to play so much games in order to achieve that. Mine was 30,000 and I play constantly.
To me, that's what link feels like. It feels like your gamer score is rising and you just, just to know that that number, yeah, just to know that number is going up, even if it's a bullcrap number, it feels, uh, very rewarding and makes you want to keep going and have a bigger number.
So that's why I see your numbers and I'm like, dang, all right, he really did put in some work. So a lot of work, a lot of sessions.
Yeah. Yeah. Because the thing is, you need, you do need stats to have motivation to continue because most people, I can guarantee, don't track their work. So they don't know how much they study, how many words they might know, right?
Yes. But you have stuff like technology that does it for you. It's pretty motivating, especially if you have a good enough number that satisfies what they want.
Yeah, so it almost felt like I was gamifying, uh, language learning. And I, when people use that, they usually talk about Duolingo, but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about, like, yeah, this is more meaningful, I think.
Uh, and it just feels, it's just like bigger number goes higher. I'm a better person, kind of. It's just like subscribers, like, you know, me being a YouTuber. When you get a million views on a video, it feels good, you know?
So when you get more numbers going up, there's something psychological about it that makes you feel better. So I think, like, kind of does that for me. Kind of like what order you did things in.
So you did Mandarin and is, did you take more time out for certain languages? Like, did you kind of pause, like, you felt like you were good on Mandarin and you kind of focused more on a different language at a time? Like, do you do it that way or is it all balanced?
They're all completely evenly balanced. Like, I kept Mandarin. I still do it every single day since day one of 2021. I never stopped. So my streak is like at least 1500 days or something by now.
But the ones I reached 100,000, I ended my streak because I don't think the daily streak can keep me motivated because after a thousand, I thought, okay, there's really no point of going further than this. I just ended it.
So I have the 900-day badge, but I don't think you really need the days. It's just enough to get you motivated because once you get results, then those daily things are just extras.
Okay, so to talk about Japanese a little bit, like, do you, um, Yeah. So do you feel like the Chinese was, it was a really big upside to learning Japanese?
It sped up my ability to learn words and I can focus only on katakana and hiragana. And that was the only thing that held me back was reading it, hiragana, katakana, because that's what Steve also had the same problem.
The other thing is, oh, go on.
Oh, I was just gonna say katakana, I don't know why, but that one bothers me still sometimes. Like, I can read it, but, like, sometimes I'm like, wait. It's not common.
That's why.
Yeah, and also, um, the English words, like, they'll be, they'll be saying, you know, it's for mostly English words, so they'll be saying a word and I have to, I have to literally sound it out. And then once I sound it out, I'm like, oh, it's this English word. And now it makes sense.
Like, it's very confusing. Like, I, uh, it, it just rattles my brain. Like, hiragana doesn't, it doesn't do that.
Yeah, it's more rare and you see katakana more often, I believe. Like, hiragana, hiragana is the one you see more often.
Yeah, yeah, when you, yeah, I don't know if you've ever been to Japan, but you see it mostly.
I wish.
You see it mostly, like, under English or, like, if there's a menu, especially, like, menus and stuff, like, uh, at restaurants, you'll see a lot of that. But,
They'll overprice it.
Probably, yeah. They'll give you the English menu and charge you, like, double the price. But yeah, that happens.
But, um, so yeah, I mean, I bet, I'm just curious. I wish, there's no way for me to know, but I bet you're probably more ahead than Japanese than I am than having 57,000 because that's crazy.
I would say
Yeah, there's also, everyone knows this one, you can probably cut this one, High School DXD.
Oh yeah, of course, yeah. Who doesn't know that? I mean, I'm gonna, yeah, I mean, newer, I don't know about newer fans, but I feel like it's still pretty popular. I mean, how do you not know about that? It's still pretty popular.
Exactly. I would say I'm a big anime fan back then, but now I only watch like Reincarnation as a Slime, and that's about it.
No, I will say like, harem, like harem anime, like those types of animes, anything slice of life like that, they're super, those are like really good for learning though, because like they, food,
Yeah, oh, if you want to learn about food, I bet that's probably a good one to watch right there. But anything slice of life that involves school life in any form, I feel like it's definitely like I'm just like consuming the crap out of that.
Like for me, I read a lot of visual novels and a lot of it mostly takes place in some sort of school. And you know, like it's, I try to stick with everyday life. I don't read anything with like a lot of fantasy elements like isekais or anything.
Too hard.
Yeah, it's just a lot of words that, that are, I'll never gonna use, like hardly, you know, I'll get to it like when I get higher level, I guess.
But my, my goal though is to read Steins Gate. I don't know if you're familiar with that anime or visual novel.
Oh, yeah, yeah. It's, it's like, it's one of the kings of anime.
Yes, that's why, like one of my most favorite anime of all time. And I attempted to try to read the visual novel years ago and it did not go very well, but that's my goal.
I think I could pick it up now and actually get through it, even if I don't understand anything.
But so do you ever go out of your way to read anything? I mean, you just don't like reading or you just, I'm at like as far as a book or any of that.
It's not a priority, but if I pick up a book, I can pretty much understand if I wanted to. I have to try because now I need to actually read because I generally don't read that much.
But if I pick up a Japanese manga, I could probably pretty much read it most of the time. There's always gonna be one kanji I don't know or some particle I never heard of.
That's crazy. Actually, it's, it's kind of off topic a little bit, but we actually had this, in high school, we had this Chinese student in our class and he would pull up untranslated manga. Like it would be like in Chinese or Japanese.
Chinese, Chinese.
Yeah, probably. Well, I think he would like pull up like Japanese ones too, but he, because of his like knowledge, right, he was able to still like understand it and it just blew us away.
We were like, oh my God. Because he'd be reading the, the, like the, I think it was Bleach specifically, and he was like reading the versions that weren't even out yet in America.
And so we were blown away by that. But that just goes to show that like, you know, it does, it does help. I know it's, there's a lot of differences in the kanji and like you said, simplified and all of that.
But I've heard it does, it does definitely help. But other people are out there to say that it doesn't help. So I don't, it's kind of a mixed opinion, I think.
If you knew traditional script for Mandarin, it would speed up the process because Japanese people use the traditional script.
Okay, so that's interesting. So you can, you, you think you could probably read a lot of like manga and stuff if you picked it up, but you just wouldn't.
Would you be able to like say it? Actively do it.
Yeah, say it. Like you just couldn't like forming sentences. Because like for me, that's my problem. It's like, I can read it, I can hear, and I can understand, but forming sentences is where it gets hard.
Very hard.
Yeah. You're always gonna start with one word and you just add on and on because you're not gonna remember a whole sentence that easily. You need a lot of repetition and you just have to figure out how to create sentences out of will.
So to do that, you need to practice creating sentences out of will. So that's pretty much what I do with Google Translate. It's a weird approach.
Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, recently Matt versus Japan, who, uh, he started talking about this, how there, he said in his video, I don't know if you watched it, that there's some people that, uh, do have that ability.
He said that he did basically have that ability of where like, he got to the point where it became, you know, almost natural to kind of start speaking, but he did say that there's a lot of people that don't do that.
Like, like people will do the same two, you know, method, right? Uh, and they come out with different results somehow. I mean, surely there's probably a lot of variables, but I think some people just can't, I don't know if it's a, if it's people's brains are different.
I mean, what do you think about that? Do you think that's bullcrap or do you think it's?
I guarantee you he spends his entire time creating sentences in his head and then he's creating flashcards because his advantage that everyone doesn't mostly have, he has the 10,000 hours and because of the passive knowledge, that probably gained him the ability to start imagining the sentences in his head.
When I first started speaking in class in Mandarin, this is, I guarantee this is what he did. As you start speaking, you're going to start imagining sentences in front of you, like subtitles, and you start speaking.
So I guarantee that he probably, as he spoke to someone, he can imagine the sentence in front of him, what he's going to say, because we hear so many times that gets you the ability to create sentences out of will.
So that's, that might, that might be just that when you're in the 10,000 hour club that you're probably going to have the ability to create sentences out of will easier, but he definitely put in the time to create sentences, flashcards, right?
Because the flashcards, you have to actively find words you will use. And yeah, it's a whole different topic.
Yeah, yeah, no, I, I would agree. I think I agree with that a lot. You have to, it's because like you can, you can make the choice to never decide to try to form a sentence or try to like, you know, make sentences.
You can just never do that. But if you actually start doing it, it does become more natural. And then the more you do it, you're like, for me, if what I specifically do is I, uh, we'll have a English, I'll have English on the front and then the Japanese is on the back.
So like I'll read it real quick and I'm like, and I'll try to say it in Japanese and then I decide if I got it wrong or not. And then I do that over and over.
Just the more that I've done that, you can start putting like the, the knowledge, it just kind of like confirms what you already knew and it becomes active for me. It's becoming more active.
I'll try that. I don't, I, I, I'm sure there's words, like official things that that's called, but whatever it is, uh, is because of Mike, the polyglot guy that I started doing that.
It's called active recall.
Active recall.
Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That.
I'm calling on will.
Yeah, yeah, active recall. That makes more sense.
Yeah, to that. Exactly. He does a lot of shadowing because he shadows a lot. That's what he says for natural, but you ever heard of Evil Dia?
He pretty much judges or they judge polyglots.
Yeah, Evil Dia. I know they're a little, uh, they have a little rivalry. They're very picky.
Yeah. No, I know. Because they're chasing, yeah, because they're aiming for more perfection for each language, but, but they don't really consider that, okay, can they talk to the person? Cool.
But they only care about how well does he speak closest to a native because that's generally how he does the judging thing is how close to a native speaker.
And they usually lowball most of them, like Michael. He gave like C's and D's to like, doesn't speak it that well, blah, blah, blah.
But yeah, I don't know. He's like, he can talk to people, so I don't see a problem.
Yeah, at the end of the day, like we said, it's all about your goals at the end of the day.
I mean, if, if he's saying that he's like completely fluent in all of these languages, then yeah, maybe that's not real.
But I mean, if that's not your goal and you just want to be able to talk in most of it.
But I do think that like, even if you don't believe what he says or anything like that, like I still thought the method of creating those sentences was actually like a different, it was very important.
I thought it was good. Actually, it helps me. I don't know much about it, but as long as you're able to form sentences out of will, then I think you're doing the right thing because I don't have that experience in Japanese, just Mandarin.
Yeah, uh, yeah, I'll, I'll let
Yeah, I actually had the my rivalry ideas that I want him to be a rival, so I'm trying to chase him, but at the same time, the only languages are holding me back is Japanese and Korean because I want to hit 20 languages, but those are two are the big ones, so I have to hyperfocus on those, get the results as high as possible, and then I can further along do more if I really want to.
Yeah. But it depends on what you want and do you really, can you maintain it? The maintenance is infinitely the hardest part.
So how does, so your day-to-day life, how is it? I know you do your active studying and stuff, but like, do you try to do, you know, do you try to fill all your time with like studying pretty much, or do you, is there anything that pulls you away from studying that you're like struggle with, like games, anything?
I guess the friends, hobbies, sports, and then, but I always told myself that I can, instead of wasting my time, I could be studying. So all I basically do is just study.
So if I'm at home and I'm doing nothing, I would study.
Does it get into, you said, you know, you're in a relationship. Does that get in, does that become a problem at any point for you?
Not really, because if she's working, then I just talk to her at night, right?
Okay, so you, you still spend time, like, you still have a normal life pretty much, like essentially, or?
Yeah, because, because all my languages in the morning, and even though no one's even awake in the morning, you know, that's the perfect time to do it because I used to wake up early and I could take advantage of that because usually language learning is very good if you do it all in the morning and then do whatever with your life.
But if you try to do it in the afternoon, you're more likely to brush it off, procrastinate.
See, that's the thing. I will admit that that is my biggest problem is that I just like, I can't, I just need to force myself to go to bed early and actually get up like early because like I, my goal is to get up at like six and just like study till 10, like at least, you know, get four hours right there. That's my goal. That's what I want to do.
Yeah, that's more hardcore than me. I only do like two hours and then depending on the stream because I stay longer because I have nothing else to do.
Yeah, well, yeah, I actually looking at your, I forgot to ask you about your profile. Like, it seems like you have, do you have goals, like actual specific timeframe goals? Like, what is this?
I have an area of, it's just pretty much what I believe I can predict what my language ability might be by then. But for example, if you see like Mandarin is like 10 years, in my mind, like true fluency, it might take 10 years because you have to still, you have to first hear every single word that you have known. So if I have...
100,000, I need to probably try to hear 100,000 words. The hard part is you need to hear them and you have to keep it solidified in your brain. So once I hit like 10 years, I pretty much hit every single case possible, I believe. But the years, it's pretty much like when I think I hit fluency, possibly, like C1 or B2, probably.
Dang, that's crazy. I see your Japanese is 2035. Like, these are some pretty long-term goals here. But like, the fact that you, the fact that like, that you're planning this out is like, like, it's not insane.
I'm not saying you're insane. I'm saying that it's very impressive. Like, it's like, nobody does things like this. Like, this is very interesting.
Yeah, because the thing, it might not really happen. It just, if I had time, I'd do it, but this is generally what the timeframe could be. And then, have you looked at the text below, the possible hidden stats? Maybe that's like something you might be interested in, but it's just more personal. Like, this is what I think exists, but Link cannot track it because it's subconscious.
Exactly. So you wish it would track that kind of stuff.
Exactly, because how, you can't really check how many words you know when you listen, right?
Yeah. That's an example. So that's a whole different topic. I, yeah, I think I've definitely, I think I learned a lot. I think my biggest thing is like that listening first and then trying to shadow. I think I'm gonna try to do that more to train my listening even better.
Yeah. Technically, that is the, that should be the main because in the end, that's your actual results. And you talk to someone, your entire, your entire skill relies on your listening. Like, you could speak because I have this, in my three-hour video, I don't know if you ever passed this part. I keep mentioning a portion about the castle theory. It's near the end, but it's, you have to reach near the end to see it, but.
I probably heard it, but like I passed, I listened to a lot of it, but I did, I did like, I did watch a lot of it though. I did like skip to the end of parts. Like I skipped around a lot, a lot, for sure.
Exactly. But I have like this theory called the castle theory, but I can only explain it another time because it's super complicated the way it sounds. But that's pretty much all I can throw at the moment.
Okay. Yeah. I mean, I'm always interested to hear, but this has been super fun. I'm trying to think if there's anything else, but yeah, we can always do a part two maybe one day. This is very motivating for me. Thank you so much for coming on my channel and being my first interview.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, it was really good. Do you wanna leave off with anything? Any tips to, I guess, what, if you were to give advice to a person that's starting out learning Japanese, any language, what would you give them, do you think? What do you think they should do?
First, focus on vocabulary. Get as much as you can. After that, start listening a lot and then don't force yourself to speak at first because if they don't understand what you're saying, that's a whole different problem. But if you don't understand what they're saying, you're gonna have to figure that out. So lots of listening and learn lots of words. And that's all I would say as a general advice.
Yeah. And spend the actual time to do it. That's what I would add. Like, actually do it. Like, you know, because...
Consistency every day.
Yeah, I think people have the idea because of like, you know, things like Duolingo and stuff that you can do this all in 15 minutes a day and it's just like, No, I kind of suffered through that same mindset for a few years thinking that like, this is gonna do something. But I realized, like, it's only a drop in the bucket. Like, you have to really make it a priority if you want it to be a thing. It's not gonna magically happen without you putting the actual work in.
Exactly. Every day, gotta put some time, but make sure you do it the right way.
Yeah. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this. And yeah, hopefully, maybe we'll do a part two one day. But this has been super fun. Thank you for joining me. And yeah, I think I'll finally end it here because I can keep talking.
All right, part two. Stay tuned, guys. Thank you very much.
All right. Thanks for watching. I'll link Kevin's channel down below. Go check it out because I really think you don't have to, but if it were me, I think you should document this stuff because I think, like, honestly, your channel could be really big if, like, if you, you know, if you want to do that because, like, what you're doing is not an easy thing. You should record it.
That's what I want to see. I'm only streaming the progress, but it's usually the most boring part.
Yeah. Well, yeah, I look forward to it. I'll definitely subscribe. So I'll link it down below. Go check out his channel.
And all right, I'm gonna end it there. Thanks, everyone.
All right. Bye-bye.
