How to learn a language by yourself

can I learn a language by myself and how this is a question I get a lot and a question that evidently a lot of you are searching for on YouTube cuz YouTube told me snitch anyway there's a lot of conflicting information out there and a lot of advice but who do you choose to listen to people who speak a lot of languages people who studied teaching and learning linguists I'm a linguist and honestly I recommend against listening to academic linguists most of the time because a lot of them are self-important jerks with no life skills

and no experience in the real world but I'm actually all of the above rolled into one and I promise I can get you on the right track to learn a language through self-study I've got a PhD in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania I speak a few languages and in my real not YouTube job I do a lot of work around culture language and adult learning can you learn a language by yourself yes absolutely it's 2024 now and we have the internet and globalization and more language learning tools and Native content than you could ever

get through but you also want to know how stick around I'm Dr Taylor and this is language [Music] Jones as you can see I'm away from home but I wanted to take a quick second for today's sponsor italki I use it talkie to achieve some of the points I'm going to discuss in a few minutes so I always enjoy working with them because I use italki and I like it iTalk is an online platform that connects language Learners with native speakers and tutors of your target language they have interactive live sessions they have over 150

languages which means that of course you can study French French or Spanish or German or Chinese but you can also study Moroccan Arabic Persian Zulu woff Vietnamese or Quebec French if you're looking for a challenge they have their own learning platform with integrated chat and a mobile app which means that you can learn on the go just like me o talog so if iie sounds like something that fits your preferences and your language learning Journey click through the link below in the description to start your language learning Journey today buy $10 and get $5 for

free for your first lesson using my code the discounts are only available for the first 50 users and last week's video had like 30,000 views and Counting so maybe click through but this all fits into a bigger language learning plan so let's get back to that back to the video when I asked it chat GPT told me look learning a language by yourself can be a rewarding and enjoyable experience and like yeah it can be but it can also be a frustrating experience with no clear Milestones inconsistent or totally absent feedback in a long tedious

slog through bad course materials that leave you demoralized exhausted bad at your language and feeling like you've wasted hours of your life we need more than just a go-getter attitude and Good Vibes so let's do this first it's worth taking time at the beginning to create a structured approach to help you get started and help you stay motivated that means one set clear goals first Define your purpose understand why you want to learn the language is it Leisure Travel is it for work are you just interested in the culture do you just like the sound

of it any of these are fine but if you just like the sound of it and want to know more about the culture being bogged down in vocabulary and scenarios designed around I don't know managing a business meeting in which you need to discuss synergistically aligning globalized efforts for a greater Roi might drive you Bonkers so what's your purpose Pur that can change too by the way at this point I'm going to recommend that you actually walk through this with me leave me a comment when you know what your motivation is and then you can

update it with more to come or write a comment at the end of the video I'll summarize all the points accountability will come later but just putting it out there in the universe in YouTube comment form will keep you more accountable and of course feed the algorithm so this video can be helpful to others and my bank account but mostly the first bit second set achievable milestones achievable is the key word here break your learning into manageable goals for instance learn basic phrases in a month or hold a simple conversation in 3 months you can

then evaluate how you're doing at those milestones and adapt your Approach at the beginning of the year I did a two or three month Sprint studying Persian which I live streamed some of it was for a trip where I knew I'd have the opportunity to speak it in stores and restaurants I had a set goal and when I went and actually spoke I immediately saw the gaps in my training and knew what I needed to work on next this is a key point I didn't beat myself up when there were times I couldn't communicate or

my words didn't flow fast enough I used that feedback to figure out what vocab areas I needed to improve and that I needed to get my time from thought to speech faster two choose the right resources I cannot emphasize this enough resources are make or break in some languages you don't have a choice I'm currently working through the rootage colloquial Hebrew Book and it's okay it's not great I'm also using du Lango and Anki more on that in a minute but both Duo and rootage aren't great however that're the best I could find for this

particular language for a language that you the viewer are statistically more likely to be interested in that's Spanish followed by other romance languages German Mandarin and in some cases English there are tons of excellent resources don't waste too much time but take your time finding resources that are good and good for you this could be textbooks and workbooks find a workbook with a good reputation for your target language and make sure they have audio they can be apps and online platforms interestingly when I ask chat gbt what I was curious it explicitly told me to

use apps like dual lingo Babble or memorize for daily practice I guess we know who has a dominant market share I actually don't generally recommend these for anything beyond adding a little fun and flavor I have a video in which I talk about whether I could make dualingo work I'll link that at the end but basically you can get a lot out of apps but they also are a little slower and require a bit more work work that they often explicitly try to prevent you from doing through their gamification and third it's hugely important that

you use audio resources even if you don't primarily plan on listening and speaking if they're available listen to podcasts audiobooks or even language learning programs chat GPT hilariously suggested pemo or Michelle tomama because the AI doesn't know that it is currently being deployed as a replacement for these things I'm starting to see a pattern in the usefulness of AI answers three build a study routine daily practice is much better than inconsistent practice even if you feel like you're getting a lot done aim for consistent daily practice rather than infrequent long sessions don't get me wrong

if you only have certain days of times and you can enter hyperfocus more power to you but the science of memory is very clear in this regard it's better to do 20 minutes a day every day than to do 140 minutes on Sundays you should also balance the skills you're interested in focus on speaking listening reading and writing to develop all aspects of the language you don't have to though so one way I didn't learn Chinese in undergrad was focusing on writing Chinese characters over and over again they look cool and my handwriting's Immaculate but

it turns out that that doesn't actually help you identify words you've heard especially if they're spoken with a slightly different accent than yours as you mutter things like L to yourself while practicing your character writing one thing to keep in mind is that listening and speaking are harder than reading and writing and are more Central to actually using the language four immerse yourself in the language this can be done in a variety of ways you don't have to go there in some cases you can't if I tried to go to ton to speak Persian I

would be stopped at the airport and disappeared thankfully we have other options media consumption is one watch movies TV shows and YouTube videos in your target language listen to music and read books or articles or listen to books and read music another is language exchange I already had a sponsorship integration from I talkie above and the reason that I have mentioned them so many times on my channel is that I use them and I really like them chat gbt mentioned a different platform when I asked which I'm contractually obligated not to mention but also I

think they suck so again maybe don't listen to AI generated advice five practice speaking I've already hinted at the importance of speaking but it takes real practice there's different things that you can focus on and different ways to get good I like to read up on the phology of a language and use the International Phonetic Alphabet as a basic introduction lots of people swear by shadowing listening to native speakers and repeating what they say to improve your pronunciation and fluency and in fact there's some solid scientific evidence that this works another thing I always recommend

is self-talk practice speaking to yourself in the language describing your day or narrating your actions you'll pretty quickly realize what you don't have the vocabulary or grammar to discuss I do the narcissist version of selft Talk which is live streaming some of my study sessions but it's actually really useful because I get feedback all of the above is helpful but it doesn't do much if you don't remember things you'll encounter lots of discussion about this on both sides but I'm strongly on Team Six use flashcards and space repetition you can use apps like Anki or

Quizlet to create flashcards and employ space repetition to retain vocabulary now there are a couple of points here first the mere Act of creating a flash card helps you remember it faster second your goal should be able to make the maximum neural connections possible this means as you're creating a card you should be thinking of pneumonics adding images associating the word with a feeling smell or story and actually savoring the new word the technical word for what you're doing is a more active and involved form of encoding those of you new to the channel will

know that I'm a huge fan of what I call naughty pneumonics there's a ton of evidence that sex violence and strong emotional veence all helps encode Memories by hijacking your amydala and hippocampus and hypothalamus and making them work for us rather than against us by the way if you are new to the Channel please take a moment to like subscribe and leave a comment it's great for the algorithm lastly when doing space repetition you should be focused on speed and ease of recollection and figuring out what is giving you a hard time if you can't

recall it quickly you won't be able to generate it when you need it in speech so be honest with yourself as you're reviewing things and if you can't recall something quickly over and over and over again you got to spend some more time in coding maybe coming up with other pneumonics or adding new images seven join online communities this is not technically by yourself just like using I talkie wasn't but it's not in a formal traditional setting either you can use language forums participate in language learning forums like reddits are/ language learning or the word

reference forums there's also just social media follow accounts related to your target language on Twitter Instagram Facebook this stuff is super helpful because it turns out stupid memes are both really memorable and also what people are actually talking about eight track your progress this is one that people really fall down on and it makes a huge difference obviously your an or other space repetition software will do some form of this but I like to have a language notebook as well for instance I've been studying Hebrew using both a textbook and du lingo here's my dualingo

notebook not only has this helped me retain what I'm learning but it's a nice resource to go back to and quickly see everything and identify what needs work and what doesn't it also helps with spatial memory but more importantly this bad boy is full I have a physical reminder of just how much I've studied and learned a crucial point about language learning that people often don't get is that it's both absorbing information and practicing a skill it's simultaneously infinite because language is infinite and also totally finite meaning it's doable and completable that's one reason I

like picking a resource like the root colloquial Persian when I was studying Persian and deciding that Within a certain time frame say 6 months I will see hear study and memorize or at least start the memorization process with encoding and space repetition flashcard making everything in the book then go out and use it say with I talkie or reading a book or watching a movie and see just how much you understand now and of course how far you have to go but it should be actually making progress and it's important to keep motivated by actually

recognizing that progress instead of just grinding all the time eight and a half language Journal keep a journal of what you've learned new vocabulary Reflections on your progress this one's optional and building on number eight I have to be honest I don't do this one as much as I should but if you keep a regular Journal it does help you figure out where your gaps are and see your progress the benefit of a journal is you can sit down in the same place with a cup of coffee or other dopamine booster and really build that

habit of self-talk with the benefit of externalizing it so you can go back to it later and identify and fill in gaps or see measurable progress 8 and 3/4 regular reviews periodically review your goals and achievements to stay motivated this is a business management technique baby it's time for your quarterly review have you met your quarterly goals do you need to be on a performance review plan do you need to revise either your methods or goals perhaps your language needs have changed and you need to rework your approach you were all about reading Spanish language

novels but now you're going to go volunteer to help recent immigrants with naturalization paperwork time for a contract law Spanish Sprint story time I once helped at a hiring fair and a guy who was applying for dishwasher job said in Spanish that he could fill out the form in English I got it back and under name he had written diswasher so we redid it in Spanish after all but who knows maybe you've gone from wanting to watch gritty scandy Noir Thrillers to actually visiting Copenhagen where you'd prefer not to be involved in gruesome crimes and

would rather manage ordering food time to Pivot to meet these goals and then reassess again in a few months time there's no right or wrong answer here nine stay motivated there's a variety of ways to do this but if you're already avoiding burnout and studying regularly you should see pretty quick progress yes you'll Plateau eventually and yes every single word you learn is less valuable than the one before it and less common once you get out of the hundred or thousand most common words but you can still do a few things to keep motivated you

can celebrate Milestones you can reward yourself when you reach your learning goals this can literally be a trip to France once you finish your initial learning goals or it can be a cookie there's kind of a lot of leeway here depending on your ENT and your means you can also find ways to find enjoyment engage in activities that you enjoy but in the target language like cooking a recipe from that culture or playing a game I learned the proper steps of wine tasting from French language YouTube videos my homemade pasta recipe is from an Italian

grandmother on YouTube It's amazing And number 10 seek feedback in my real life I spend a lot of time in my job explaining to people the true value of feedback feedback is a gift true constructive feedback especially in a digestible amount and timed appropriately is lifechanging when other people have your best interest at heart and provide you with feedback it is one of the best gifts in life so seek out meaningful feedback seek out correction do not be afraid to make mistakes and seek feedback from native speakers or online tutors I find that tutors are

a little bit easier because you already know that's the whole point of the exercise I have a French cousin who gives me incredibly helpful feedback but it's when I'm just trying to talk to her and sometimes it's helpful and sometimes I feel like I can't say anything without being criticized if you start to feel that way it's worth reminding yourself of the benefits of feedback but also trying to get it down to a manageable and digestable amount this might mean telling my cousin that I really appreciate the feedback but can we just work on the

most egregious errors right now since I can't absorb all of the feedback I need at once and of course the best way to do this is how I started the video with tutoring consider occasional lessons with a tutor for personalized guidance and correction now you can divide this up however you want but a sample study plan might look something like this sample weekly study plan Monday VOC vocabulary and grammar morning 30 minutes on vocabulary using flashcards ankey or Quizlet or whatever evening 30 minutes to 1 hour on grammar exercises from a textbook personally I would

dump them all into Anki use active recall and space repetition Tuesday listening and speaking morning 20 minutes listening to a podcast in the target language this is super easy another one I recommend is just listening to podcasts every night while say doing the dishes evening 30 minutes to 1 hour practicing speaking with a language exchange partner Wednesday reading and writing morning 20 minutes reading a short article or book chapter note any grammatical Concepts that you don't understand dump words into anky in the evening 30 minutes writing a journal entry in the target language try to

use what you were working on in the morning engaging in spaced active recall Thursday immersion and media evening 1 hour watching a TV show or movie in the target language lazy easy fun Friday review and practice morning 30 minutes reviewing vocabulary and grammar from the week add anything that you haven't to your space repetition flashcards that you think you should evening 30 minutes practicing speaking or doing interactive exercises online Saturday cultural exploration afternoon 1 hour exploring cultural aspects through cooking music or virtual tours you can do a lot of this right here on YouTube or

you can do it on Wikipedia Sunday rest and reflect reflect on the week's progress and adjust your goals or methods if necessary I'm not going to lie to you my schedule's a little bit different most notably I'm not studying anything on Friday night through Saturday night except passively reading from a textbook or other resource and attempting to memorize the oldfashioned way with active recall and strong encoding but just because I don't write or use Electronics one day a week doesn't mean that you can't although honestly there's a lot to be said for the mental benefits

of a digital detox so there you have it by following these steps and maintaining a consistent balanced approach you can effectively learn language on your own but this is hugely important persistence and regular practice are keys to making steady progress so now what are you going to do what's your target language do you already know what your goals are and what resources will get you there how will you schedule your time to achieve those goals with regular practice language learning is like stretching and Mobility you have to do it basically every day and it takes

months before you see progress personally I can apply all of these to my life in language learning but I've been trying to get the splits for like 20 years now but if you actually schedule the time set an achievable and measurable goal you can do it is it going to be a whole lot harder for Zulu than Spanish absolutely there's just not the same level of resource sources but you can definitely do this so go out there and get to learning happy learning if you like this video please like subscribe and comment if you haven't

already and share with someone you think will benefit from it I want to thank all of my patrons you can become one too if you want at patreon.com language Jones or you can support the channel right here on YouTube with Super Chat and super thanks and if you liked this video YouTube thinks that you'll probably enjoy this one until next time happy learning