Language Lords

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Yunus39
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Language Lords

Postby Yunus39 » Thu Sep 08, 2022 1:22 am

I am a big fan of the LANGUAGE LORDS channel so far. The latest video is him learning Italian from zero. His videos always have provocative titles, but if you look at the hours he puts in, his results are believable. He is a grinder for sure, though. Most people are not going to have the wherewithal or time to pull this off. His methods aren't groundbreaking, but his videos are great because they show you exactly what he does and for how long. They are very specific.



His video for Spanish:


And French (which if I understand correctly, was his first project):
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Re: Language Lords

Postby Yunus39 » Sun Sep 11, 2022 2:41 am

Why I Memorized an ENTIRE Italian Youtube Video


Reminds me a lot of the LAMP method by the Brewsters. Anyone else run into that? LAMP is both loved and hated. It's another highly social method of learning, that features memorizing content, and then using it and pieces of it in conversation.
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Re: Language Lords

Postby dlt529 » Sun Sep 11, 2022 4:16 pm

So, I've run across this guy before. Here are some thoughts in no particular order. I'll start by saying I can see why it can be inspiring to see someone make progress so quickly. I just don't trust processes like these, and here's why.

1. This method seems to focus entirely on speaking, and is giving me "Benny Lewis" vibes. So, he can produce monologues in these languages and have simple conversations after 6-weeks. What else is he capable of doing with them? Can he read a newspaper or novel? Watch a TV show? He takes "speaking" a language a face value (oral production), but usually it goes a bit further, you know?

2. Given how much time he spends on this method, would the same amount of time get him further faster with another method? Most of the time, picking a method comes down to personal preference, but people seem to assume that their method is the best. With this account, specifically, with all the time he spends memorizing the same transcript and shadowing it, if he did a more balanced approach, or did an input heavy approach, for the same intensity and same length, how would the results be different?

3. Honestly, I can't imagine anything more boring than repeating the same transcript over and over again. I'm willing to do repeition if necessary (I'll write out verb tables for hours if you let me), but the core of his studying is just repeating the same things over and over again, which I just don't have the discipline to do, even if it works.

4. His major thesis, it seems, is "do more with less", which doesn't seem to be that rare among "youtube polyglots"? It doesn't seem radically different from the approaches that focus on the top 5000 words, for example, just a little more gimmicky.

5. As someone who also learns three romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French), the more you know the easier it is. I was able to listen to whole podcasts in French on technical subjects without much issue on day 1, since I have a decent level in the other two. I'd be interested to see him apply this method to a non-Romance and/or non-European language.

In fact, this method kind of seems like a rehash of the Audiolingual method, which was widely used in the 60s, I believe. The emphasis was just on repeating drills perfectly, which seems to be what he does.
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Re: Language Lords

Postby garyb » Sun Sep 11, 2022 6:50 pm

Based on the first video and dlt529's thoughts, my impression is that he's found a method that works well... Works well for his personality and goals.

I don't think it would be for me, but for someone who wants to learn to speak and give an impression of fluency as soon as possible, isn't too interested in the other skills yet, and can stomach all the repetition, I can't really fault it.

I do agree that it would be unlikely to get you so far in such a short amount of time for more distant languages, but based on my (quite limited) experiences outside of the Romance and Germanic families where the vocabulary tends to be much less "sticky" and my brain could only handle a very small amount of new material per day, a method focused on drilling a very limited amount of language seems like the only way to go if you're wanting to study intensively and put in several hours per day. Not that I'd expect it to be much fun.

As usual I don't think it's anything new or revolutionary, and I've certainly dabbled with repetitive listening and shadowing or chorusing of a single text in the past, although more to work specifically on pronunciation rather than speaking as a whole. Most beginner resources worth their salt focus on getting to grips with a small amount of common language first (exceptions being Assimil, but I wouldn't consider that a beginner resource, and classroom textbooks that often rush too quickly into thematic vocabulary) and the aforementioned audio-lingual method takes that to the extreme.
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Re: Language Lords

Postby Yunus39 » Mon Sep 12, 2022 2:48 am

dlt529 wrote:So, I've run across this guy before. Here are some thoughts in no particular order. I'll start by saying I can see why it can be inspiring to see someone make progress so quickly. I just don't trust processes like these, and here's why.

1. This method seems to focus entirely on speaking, and is giving me "Benny Lewis" vibes. So, he can produce monologues in these languages and have simple conversations after 6-weeks. What else is he capable of doing with them? Can he read a newspaper or novel? Watch a TV show? He takes "speaking" a language a face value (oral production), but usually it goes a bit further, you know?

2. Given how much time he spends on this method, would the same amount of time get him further faster with another method? Most of the time, picking a method comes down to personal preference, but people seem to assume that their method is the best. With this account, specifically, with all the time he spends memorizing the same transcript and shadowing it, if he did a more balanced approach, or did an input heavy approach, for the same intensity and same length, how would the results be different?

3. Honestly, I can't imagine anything more boring than repeating the same transcript over and over again. I'm willing to do repeition if necessary (I'll write out verb tables for hours if you let me), but the core of his studying is just repeating the same things over and over again, which I just don't have the discipline to do, even if it works.

4. His major thesis, it seems, is "do more with less", which doesn't seem to be that rare among "youtube polyglots"? It doesn't seem radically different from the approaches that focus on the top 5000 words, for example, just a little more gimmicky.

5. As someone who also learns three romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French), the more you know the easier it is. I was able to listen to whole podcasts in French on technical subjects without much issue on day 1, since I have a decent level in the other two. I'd be interested to see him apply this method to a non-Romance and/or non-European language.

In fact, this method kind of seems like a rehash of the Audiolingual method, which was widely used in the 60s, I believe. The emphasis was just on repeating drills perfectly, which seems to be what he does.


I think those are all good points. His last two videos are a bit extremist on a certain method, and a method I doubt most people would be capable of implementing much less wild about. I have done some work with this kind of method, and found it helpful, but would never do it as my main method for language learning.

His videos for French and Spanish are more well-rounded and more helpful as they give good instruction on several different activities.
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Re: Language Lords

Postby dlt529 » Mon Sep 12, 2022 12:06 pm

Yunus39 wrote:I think those are all good points. His last two videos are a bit extremist on a certain method, and a method I doubt most people would be capable of implementing much less wild about. I have done some work with this kind of method, and found it helpful, but would never do it as my main method for language learning.

His videos for French and Spanish are more well-rounded and more helpful as they give good instruction on several different activities.


Another reason I kind of distrust him is that, in the Italian video, he seemed to present the method as improving over time (ie, he learned more and could do it better) while ignoring the fact that he now speaks two related languages. I had the same thought reading the Krashen Thread--Steven Kauffman can probably do input only with little formal study now because he's studied like 20 languages. The more you know, the easier the beginning is because your brain has more patterns to draw from. In my experience, many youtubers ignore this when talking about their method.

I have saved his videos because everyone talks about Shadowing but I just can't imagine the workflow, so when I'm ready for it in French I'll circle back to him!
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Re: Language Lords

Postby Le Baron » Mon Sep 12, 2022 4:49 pm

There's worthy stuff in these videos. In particular the thing he says about picking up words and speech patterns and common fixed phrases from interacting with other speakers is something I've promoted myself on here. It's simply true; it's how language spreads among the native community anyway. I also watch content with subtitles because I can ignore them unless I need to glance down for something I missed. You find yourself looking down less and less over time.

As he says himself he is devoting hours a day to this in an intense way. Anyone who thinks '30 days' or '6 weeks', but isn't envisaging this as 30 days of very intense work for hours, has missed the catch. Not 30 days of 30-45 minutes a day on Anki and reading a children's book.

The difference is time spent with the language within a period of time. Hare or tortoise. I think it's probably better to be somewhere in-between the two. Let's be honest, it's simply impossible to acquire enough wide ranging language to really function in a free and fluent way within a month. He limits himself to certain areas, mostly talking to people about learning the language. This is good in a way because you practise skill in a small area before broadening out. However this (and he says it himself) is 'getting better over time'. So not really '30 days' or 44 days or 6 weeks. It's a superficial fluency, but has value in making you able to interact at a level enough to be able to acquire more from interactions. The real acquisition will be over a far longer time period.

Also, he sounds Spanish when speaking Italian. :lol:
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Re: Language Lords

Postby einzelne » Mon Sep 12, 2022 5:15 pm

Yunus39 wrote:I am a big fan of the LANGUAGE LORDS channel so far.


It's a little bit off topic but, if I were you, I wouldn't spend so much of your time on these videos. First, they usually don't contain any insights (it would be faster and quicker to ask users here). Second, they simply take away the precious time you can spend with your target language. I remember watching a lot of these videos in the beginning of my language journey. Luckily, they were all in English so at least they were somewhat helpful for training my listening skills. But I doubt there are channels on polyglottery in Koine... It would be fun though to have one with clickbait articles in Koine "Hellene guy shocks English tourists with his perfect scouse accent!"
Last edited by einzelne on Mon Sep 12, 2022 7:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Language Lords

Postby Le Baron » Mon Sep 12, 2022 5:42 pm

einzelne wrote:"Hellene guy shocks English tourists with his perfect scouse accent!"

:lol:
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Re: Language Lords

Postby Le Baron » Mon Sep 12, 2022 7:03 pm

I want to be a Language Lord. I hope it comes with a manor house and stables. And entitles me to sit in the House of Lords where I can make lordly impassioned speeches about important language matters.
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