English translation

Hi, my name is Radek. In today’s episode I will tell you about how I learn foreign languages, specifically about how I start learning a new language… Let’s say I decided I wanted to learn a new language: What are the first steps I take in such situation?

I usually start learning with book courses. For example, this is… This is one of my first language courses, for Italian. This is a course for learning Dutch: one of the last ones I bought. And that’s… one more course.

When choosing a course, it is important to pay attention to a few things. The key are dialogues and audio material. I believe that when learning a foreign language, listening is important from the very beginning: listening to the same material multiple times, and it must be material that is understandable to us. Dialogues from book courses meet all these criteria, they are perfect for the beginning of learning.

They are usually divided into several to several dozen lessons. And each (such) lesson contains one, two or three dialogues. Therefore, we have several dozen dialogues, and each of (such) dialogues is one to three – four minutes long. Therefore, we have two to three hours of audio material that we can use. And if we listen to (this) audio material several times, we have can get the first dozen or even several dozens of hours, which is a very important first input: it is estimated that learning a language to proficiency takes at least six hundred hours, but the communicative level requires only a fraction of that, that is for example 120, 180 hours… Therefore, (these) several dozens of hours spent with the book course account for about ten to fifteen percent of the whole process that we have to go through.

I am presenting these (perhaps somewhat complicated) calculations to make you realize that such a course, even though it is good, is only the first step to learning the language. It won’t make you speak the language in four weeks.

In addition to the dialogues, it is also important to understand these dialogues (as I said earlier). The fact that it is a book course (i.e. in addition to the audio CDs there are also a lot of texts) means that this book can increase your comprehension. That is a good book course should above all include a transcription of the recordings, and explanations: whether regarding the vocabulary or the translated dialogue, and, likewise, the grammar [gets] explained.

In addition, exercises are often added. Both grammar and exercises must be approached appropriately. This means that grammar explanations should be treated only as an aid, which serves to comprehend the dialogues. Don’t try to learn it [the grammar], memorize it… And similarly with the exercises: Personally, I don’t solve these exercises at all, but sometimes I check the answers, or check what the exercises are about: so that I know what may be particularly difficult in this language, what I need to prepare for.

Once I bought the right book, that is, one that has dialogues in audio format, which has a transcription or a glossary, which has grammar explanations, I start to learn from it. I learn by first listening to a given dialogue once or twice: so as to have first contact with this dialogue.

Then I check the text and try to analyze it (or, as Vera Birkenbihl says, decode it): so as to comprehend it as much as possible. I usually highlight different parts of speech with colors, what works best for me is a system where I mark verbs with one color, nouns with a second color, adjectives with a third color, and these are the so-called open parts of speech, i.e., those to which new words can be added as the language develops. I also mark other words, such as pronouns or prepositions, with a fourth color, and these are closed parts of speech. A closed set of parts of speech is one that rather does not expand as the language develops. And in addition, I use the fifth color to mark various phrases / expressions / lexical chunks, i.e. collocations of different words that often appear together.

Therefore, I need five colors of pencils: for me verbs are blue, nouns – green, adjectives – orange, these remaining words, such as pronouns or prepositions – pink, and phrases – purple. These can be colored pencils, or these can be highlighters, as in this case. Of course I don’t mark every word, only the words I don’t know yet, or those to which I want to draw (my) attention. I make (these) annotations directly in the book, or I copy the entire dialogue into a notebook and only then make the annotations. If I use a notebook, I rewrite the dialogue with a pen, I make annotations with colored pencils, and translate incomprehensible words with a pencil.

Then I move on to the next phase, which is active listening. That is, I listen to a dialogue two or three more times, this time following the text. If certain moments are faster, I try to go back to them, and play them back as many times as needed to capture certain nuances that are there.

And that’s NOT where my learning ends. There’s one last step, i.e. transferring / downloading all audio materials to the phone, creating a playlist in the music player, and listening to these recordings while, for example, cooking, going shopping or taking a walk. Of course, I don’t add these recordings all at once, rather I expand my playlist as I learn. So at the beginning I have one or two recordings that I listen to on repeat, and then this playlist expands with more and more items. I also prefer to set the playback order to random: so that I never know which dialogue comes next, but in this regard just do as you please…

So I listen to each dialogue five to ten times in total. First, learning with a book, with a notebook, and then on the headphones while performing other activities. This way, as I said before, I get about a dozen to even several dozens hours of learning, at relatively low cost: (these) courses usually cost thirty-nine… there is no price here… this one costs sixteen ninety!

Once I finish a book like this, I proceed in a very similar fashion, using materials for intermediate level users instead, i.e. channels, where you can repeat the process by listening to a video, using a transcription, and annotating. The process is very similar, there are some special channels that I used, for example, to learn Italian, French, Portuguese. And what’s more: when I understand everything on (such) channels intended for those learning languages, I move on to content aimed at native speakers, and try to understand it too. And once I understand it (and if like it), I listen to my favorite podcasts or interviews in a given language several times.

Of course, in the meantime I also use other methods and techniques, but this process that I have described here is the main axis of my learning, which always sets a schedule for me, also dividing learning into predictable stages. The first stage is this kind of a bit more arduous work with book courses. Then opening up to channels, to some more interesting content, and finally comes the feeling that I can understand almost everything in a given language.

And, by the way, this process also corresponds to typical stages of language learning on the CEFR scale. That means when I start working with the book course, I am around level A1. When I finish it, I can say that I have reached level A2. When I start working with YouTube channels, with authentic materials, I am around B1 level. Once I am familiar with the channels and grasp them fully, I can say that I have about a B2 level. And when I move on to content aimed at native speakers, such as books or movies, I feel that I have reached C1 level. Of course, provided that I also develop other competencies. than just listening and comprehension… But it is listening and comprehension that is key to what Stephen Krashen calls language acquisition.

That’s all for this video, I hope you liked it. If so, then of course leave a like and subscribe to this channel. And please write in the comments: how do you learn foreign languages? Please share your perspective: so that ones who watch this video looking for inspiration could also find it in the comments. Thanks, and see you in the next videos on this channel! Bye!