One Simple Method to Learn Any Language | Scott Young & Vat Jaiswal | TEDxEastsidePrep

Transcriber: Alina Siluyanova Reviewer: Denise RQ Scot Young: We want to start with a question for you. By show of hands, how many of you have dedicated time and effort to

learn

ing another

language

? Maybe you took a Spanish class in high school, or maybe you took in a lot of Rosetta Stone, but you can't speak that

language

with confidence right now. Vat Jaiswal: Okay. That's most of you here. Some of you are raising both hands. We've tried

learn

ing a few languages ​​ourselves, we'll talk about that in a minute. But let's talk about what the problem is, what is the main problem that prevents everyone from learning languages.

Could it be that you are using the wrong study program and if you used a perfect program or app, then you could learn the language? SY: Well, the record here is not too good. Of the 1,000 Americans who responded to the General Social Survey, only 7 stated that they spoke another language very well and had, in fact, learned it in school. And if we consider self-study programs, like Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur, well, they can work sometimes, but they have another problem: huge dropout rates. , at the University of Maryland did a study involving an enthusiastic group of volunteers and found that only 6% spent more than 100 hours on the program, which is far less than it would take to use these programs to master any language. . language.

VJ: OK, well, maybe then the problem is that you don't live in the country that uses this language, and if you moved there, you could learn it. SY: I have to agree with you on this, Vat. Living in a country that speaks the language definitely helps. Provides motivation and an opportunity for immersion. But it is not the answer to all your problems. If you go to the country and you still don't speak the language, what are you going to do? Are you going to rely on other English-speaking expats and locals to help you get by? And that's going to create an English bubble, it's going to isolate you from immersing yourself.

So, we know an extreme example. We know of an American businessman who went to Korea, married a Korean woman, had children in Korea, lived in Korea for 20 years, and still couldn't hold a decent conversation in Korean. So, living in the other country helps, but it is not a miracle solution that will solve all your problems on its own. VJ: Well, finally, maybe the problem is that you are simply too old and you should have tried to learn the language when you were a child because children learn languages ​​​​faster, right? SY: Actually, this is a widespread myth.

Steven Brown of Einstein University and Jennifer Larson-Hall of Qiushi University reviewed the literature and found that adults actually learn languages ​​faster than children in the short term. Only when we talk about reaching native levels of pronunciation and grammar do children begin to show an advantage over an adult. So definitely, if you just want to be able to communicate with people, have conversations, there's no reason you can't learn a second language at any age. VJ: If those are not the central themes, what is the central theme? We have a completely different hypothesis and to explain this concept I want you to look at this image of the ocean.

Now, if you look at the water, you will see 2 different areas: the area at the bottom where the waves break and the area at the top where the water is relatively calm. Now I want you to imagine that you are standing on the shore and you want to swim in the ocean. When you start swimming in the ocean, you will be in this first area where the waves break. And swimming in this area is incredibly difficult, you feel incredible resistance, the waves crush you and constantly try to push you back to the shore. However, if you were to go through this area and reach the second area, suddenly swimming becomes much easier and, more importantly, the waves are not trying to push you back, you will no longer feel this incredible resistance.

So we think language learning works very similar to this. When you start learning a language, you will be in this first zone that we call "the fear zone" or "the frustration zone", because this is where you are afraid to use the language, this is where you are afraid to use the language. When making mistakes, this is where you fear embarrassing yourself. And learning a language in this area is very difficult: the waves represent this negative feedback and it constantly tries to push you back to the shore. However, if you were to pass this area and reach the second area where the waters are calmer, suddenly language learning becomes much easier and much more fun.

Mind you, I'm not saying you're perfect when you get to the second zone, or maybe you only know a few words, but you're able to use them with confidence, maybe you can have some

simple

conversations. And the language just goes from always being frustrating to now being rewarding, most of the time. So we think the core problem that a lot of people have is that they get stuck in this zone of fear and frustration for longer than necessary and, for some people, forever. And if all you see are negative comments, it's very difficult to motivate yourself to learn more, improve, and learn the language you really want to learn.

So, ideally, you would use a different

method

, a

method

that allows you to get through this zone very quickly and efficiently, so that you can get to the part where learning a language is fun and easy as quickly as possible. SY: We believe we have this method, a method that cuts through the waves and gets you to the easiest part of language learning as quickly and efficiently as possible. It is very

simple

. Do not speak in english. And that may seem a little obvious or simplistic, but it's actually really powerful. When you force yourself to speak the language you are trying to learn and you learn words and phrases out of necessity, not in the order they appear in the textbook.

That means you automatically learn the most frequent vocabulary and the most important words for your situation. . Then, since you don't know many words and phrases, you will abuse what you do know. This results in effects that psychologists call overlearning and that allow you to access that information automatically. You don't need to hold your tongue or hesitate when using basic words and phrases. And finally, since you cannot speak English, you will easily develop conversational solutions to handle situations that are above your level. That will be from learning simple phrases like: "What does this mean?" and "How do you say this?" in the language, relatively early, until you can efficiently use things like Google Translator and dictionaries to integrate new words and phrases into your conversations while you're having them.

Does this method work? Well, we know that this method works because we have tried it ourselves. So last year Scott and I did an experiment, but we tried to learn four different languages ​​and we went to four different countries to learn these languages ​​for a year. .And we use the same no English rule to learn the languages. So, first we went to Spain to learn Spanish for 3 months, then we went to Brazil to learn Portuguese for 3 months and then more to mainland China to learn Mandarin for 3 months. , and finally to Korea to learn Korean for 3 months.

And we found that this no-English rule worked incredibly well, near the end of our travels in each country. , we were able to confidently converse with native speakers about virtually any topic and go about our daily lives, using the language we were trying to learn. In fact, we have a short video that we would like to show you that captures the kind of progress we were able to make using this no English rule in just under 3 months for each country. So take a look. (Video) SY: This may seem a little extreme. After all, wouldn't it be much easier to speak some English when you're trying to learn the language, even if it's not as fast as this no-English rule?

In fact, we believe this is a mistake. And to argue why it is a misconception, I would like to reference an experience I had. You see, years before we did this challenge, I had a different opportunity to learn a second language. I was in college and had the opportunity to study abroad for a year in France. And just like this trip, I really wanted to learn the local language. I bought books, downloaded podcasts, and really wanted to speak French fluently. The only difference is that I didn't have any specific rules against speaking in English. I thought, "I'll go there and speak as much English as I need and try to practice French whenever I can." And after a year of living in France and trying hard to study every day, I got to a point where I could have a conversation, but it was never easy, it always seemed difficult, I always felt like it was a little out of character. place.

And compare that to my most recent experience in Spain. Once again we have the motivation and the opportunity, but this time we have the rule of not speaking English. From the first day we arrived in Spain we decided that we were only going to speak Spanish. And, as you can probably imagine, with limited knowledge of Spanish it was very difficult at first. During these first days we had to communicate almost exclusively through our dictionaries. But after 2 weeks something changed, it started to get a little easier. After a month even easier. And by the third month we were in Spain, it became so easy that living our lives completely in Spanish was automatic.

We didn't have to think about studying or practicing, it was completely invisible in our lives. And what's more, after only 3 months in Spain, our Spanish, both of our Spanish, was much better than my French after a year of living in France and deliberately studying it. So when you evaluate the difficulty of a method, particularly in language learning, it's not really fair to look at that initial hint of difficulty because you have to consider how much effort you're going to put in, not just at the beginning, but day after day, month after month. month to finally be able to learn this language.

And what we found is not only that the no-English rule is faster, but that when you take this broader view, it's actually easier than any other method we've tried for learning a language. VJ: And I would like to talk about another misconception that many people have: that you would somehow be able to completely avoid making mistakes when you start learning a language. And that's simply not true. Making mistakes is actually very good because it means you are using the language and eventually helps you gain the confidence you need to speak the language. When Scott and I were doing this challenge, we made mistakes every day, especially at the beginning, everything we said was wrong, but it's okay.

And in China and Korea, because Chinese and Korean are much more difficult than the European languages ​​we tried to learn, we made a mistake and broke the rule of not speaking English a couple of times too, but it didn't matter because that's not the case. . about making mistakes, how many mistakes you're making, it's more about every time you make a mistake you try again. So, remember that the goal of this process and this method is to overcome this zone of frustration and fear so that you can get to the part where language learning becomes fun and easy.

Ideally, the way to do this is to move to the country that speaks this language and do 100% immersion from day one and commit to the no English rule. But obviously, that's a little extreme and many of you here may not have the opportunity to do that. But I would like to point out that the beauty of the no English rule is that it doesn't have to be 100% no English all the time with everyone. It can also work in a limited context. So let me give you an example. If you are trying to learn Spanish and you have a coworker or colleague who speaks Spanish, perhaps you will commit to the rule of not speaking English every time you see this person.

So every time you go to see them you commit only to speaking in Spanish. So if you ran into them at the water cooler and you wanted to make small talk, and you wanted to say, let's say you were busy at work, and you wanted to say, "Oh, I'm so busy today," It's okay to get out the dictionary and translate the entire sentence. You don't have to feel ready to say this, the goal is to just try and try. And what this really helps you do is it helps you with two really important things. The first: it helps you eliminate the ambiguity of what language you should use, because if with this coworker, let's say, you can speak in Spanish and you can speak in English, obviously you are going to default to speaking in English because it is much easier.

But by committing to the no English rule, you are saying: "Every time I see this person I know it's time to practice, I have no doubt that now I have to speak Spanish even if I have to get out my dictionary." And the second thing that helps you is that it helps you develop the habit of speaking the language even at a very low level of skill. This really helps you develop the confidence that you will eventually need when you start speaking this language at a level.higher. SY: So you've heard about our challenge. Now we would like to send you one.

And no, we are not asking you to sell your things and go live in a faraway country. We'll ask you to do something much simpler, but if you follow it, it will still be very effective if you finally want to start having conversations in that language you've been learning your whole life. Only 3 steps. Step 1: Find a person. It could be a native speaker of this language, or it could be another language learner, it could be someone you already know, a friend, a colleague, a spouse, or it could be someone you find online. There are services like italki.com and livemocha to find conversation partners online.

So if you can't find this person in your life right now, there are easy tools to find them online. Step 2: Commit to the no English rule with this person. Every time you see them, just speak in this language you are trying to learn. Tell them that, you know, even though you're not very good with the language yet, at first you'll have to use Google Translator and the dictionary a lot, that's fine. Step 3: Start talking. Again, it's not something you have to be perfect at. You might make a mistake and break the "no English" rule, but try again.

Take out your phone, download the Google Translator app, you can type full sentences if you're not comfortable speaking the language yet. The goal is to get you to start speaking, to start developing that knowledge of words and to start practicing those basic phrases. What we hope is that by showing you this method we encourage you to start with something, not to be perfect, and maybe even today to decide to find that person and start this rule, and finally start speaking that language. . The Chinese have an expression: (Chinese) "A good start is half of success", which means: "A good start is half of success." (Applause)