Stop Learning Grammar in English | Do This One Thing to Become Advanced Faster

hello guys and welcome back to my YouTube channel  this video is going to be very interesting and  

very special because it's an interview with Steve  Kaufman Steve is a really famous Canadian polyglot  

and he knows 20 plus languages I think a lot  of different languages and Russian is one of  

them and my native language is Russian he can also  speak English obviously that's his native language  

and Spanish and I'm currently learning Spanish  also on my channel if you click right here you  

will find the first interview with him and a year  later I decided to take on this challenge again  

and interview Steve because guys first of all my  English has improved a lot and I'm pretty sure  

we have a lot more tips to share with you guys  when it comes to language learning so let's begin  

hello Steve welcome to my YouTube channel thank  you Veronica thank you for inviting me please  

uh please tell first well I'm uh Steve  Kaufman I live in Vancouver British Columbia  

um I'm 77 years old I like language learning I  have a YouTube channel called lingo Steve together  

with my son we created a website called link Li  ngq for language learning which is where I learn  

languages and right now I'm learning Persian and  Arabic wow cool yeah so interesting thank you so  

much for sharing all of this with us uh actually  guys I already have an interview with Steve on my  

YouTube channel and today we're filming another  one a year later and today I wanted to talk to  

you guys about language learning and especially  about accents and obviously Accents in English  

so Steve a lot of people on my channel always  ask me oh Veronica I'm really insecure about  

my accent like what what should I do should I  work on my accent should I change my accent in  

any way because I feel like every time I talk  to a native speaker there are always going to  

be judging my English just because I don't  sound like them okay like what would you I  

mean it depends I guess to some extent where you  live I understand that if someone lives in North  

America and they speak with an accent they may  be self-conscious about the fact that they have  

an accent but in reality I mean I live in Canada  but there are so many people with accents that  

most people aren't that concerned they may have  some curiosity about you know what is your accent  

are you French are you Bulgarian are you you know  whatever you know I lived in Japan for nine years  

I speak Japanese quite well or even French I  speak quite well people will occasionally ask  

me like where are you from so so what you know it  doesn't bother me in the slightest what matters  

is how well do you use the language how well  do you structure your your phrases how uh you  

know which do you use the correct word you know  the word that is is most appropriate for that  

situation and these are things that we acquire  gradually through a lot of exposure to the  

language hearing people use the language in a  certain way and we start to pick up on it and  

and so we start to speak in a more natural way  and I have had many interactions with people in  

Canada or elsewhere in the world who are German or  Swedish or French or Chinese or whatever and they  

use the language very well and they have in some  cases quite a strong accent yeah no I completely

why I I really wanted to talk about this question  with you is because I used to be that person who  

would always be like oh I really need to get rid  of my Russian accent because I was very insecure  

about it I was like I don't want people to think  like the first uh thing they have in their head  

when they're talking to me oh it's like oh she's  from Russia or oh she has an accent so that's why  

um the motivation for me to uh like to improve  my accent wasn't very positive it was like oh  

I'm embarrassed of my accent and it took me years  to come to terms with the fact that I will always  

have an accent as a non-native speaker who learned  English as an adult I will always have this like  

little trace of something and people will always  be like okay yeah she's not from here she's not  

a native speaker but I can't really Place her yeah  exactly I would do that with you you speak so well  

I I certainly wouldn't identify your accent  as Russian I wonder where she's from she's not  

native speaker but she speaks so well I wonder  where she's from is she from I don't know yeah  

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guys let's go back to the interview and continue  talking about language learning you also mentioned  

like what's important is how non-native speakers  can use words in English and I think a couple of  

days ago my Russian friend actually asked me like  Veronica like I learned all of these words but I'm  

not sure if I can actually use them when I talk  to a native speaker how can I make sure that if  

I use all of these new words that I learn it's  going to sound alright like obviously they are  

gonna understand me I understand that but like is  it gonna sound weird are they gonna be like okay  

we don't really speak like this like how can I  make sure that I'm using the right words you can't  

yeah that's a very simple question the thing  is with enough exposure with enough listening  

and reading and speaking with people your brain  will gradually develop better and better habits  

in time it's a bit like AI you know the automatic  translation or automatic you know transcriptions  

or translations has improved so much because  of the vast quality of data that has become  

available to these engines that then make this  system better it's the same with language your  

brain is absorbing all this data it's absorbing  the language spoken by native speakers sometimes  

incorrectly and then the brain will remove that  because it doesn't come up that often but but it's  

develops better and better habits over time by the  way that reminds me I had a comment on my YouTube  

channel when I did a video about Russians saying  that one of the difficulties in Russian is verbs  

of motion which is true because you know it is  and so this person says oh that's ridiculous you  

know we Russians never ask ourselves the question  of you know which is the correct verb of course  

not you've had millions and millions of hours of  reading words and stuff your brain has figured it  

out all by itself but the poor Foreigner trying to  learn Russian hasn't had millions and millions of  

hours and stuff like that so it's more difficult  for them and so now whether the explanation about  

you know version of motion helps or not I have  my doubts like it helps a little but ultimately  

you still have to fall back to the idea of you  just have to get so much exposure to the language  

that the brain starts to develop good habits yes I  completely agree with you here because when people  

ask me like oh explain this like expression to me  explain how native speakers use it yes I'm gonna  

explain it to you but exposure is really gonna  help you a lot here and when people ask me this  

question is oh how can I use this word like where  can I use it okay I'm gonna explain it to you but  

again if you practice English a lot if you listen  a lot if you read a lot you will kind of naturally  

understand how to use all these words and where  to use them yeah and it may be that if you use  

it word incorrectly but you're talking about a  certain subject the person you're speaking with  

may actually come back with that word or a similar  word or a related word and very often you can pick  

up on things just by listening to other people  you may forget it again but all the things that  

we forget they're still somewhere in our brain and  you may come across it again and forget it again  

but then eventually that becomes a part of your  language habits so we just have to be patient some  

of the idioms are so outdated like people don't  use them anymore but some of them yeah they're  

very useful to know so I would be like oh this  person is especially like this person is my age  

this person just use this idiom and like they're  talking to me so it's kind of like this cue for me  

to realize that okay Veronica you should memorize  this like idiom or they actually do use this idiom  

um yeah just noticing all those patterns and being  an active listener you know I totally agree and  

you know all these language books not just for  English for Chinese for any other language here  

here are a list of you know 50 idioms that  are going to make your language sound more  

sophisticated you haven't got a chance haven't  got a chance of learning those yeah you don't  

know which ones are act you don't believe half  those videos or you idioms are used you don't  

know however when you have a conversation with  someone you know anything you're getting from  

that conversation is more likely to stick it  may not stick but it's more likely to stick it's  

high resonance it's relevant it's you connecting  with another human being that's a great learning  

opportunity a list of idioms in a course somewhere  that's not going to stick and talking about  

grammar because uh this is usually for example  even just a question from me because I'm learning  

Spanish right now like at the very beginning of  my journey and uh when I just look at all the  

grammar I have to learn I feel a little bit scared  because I'm like oh my God there's so much grammar  

I don't know so how do you think a language learn  owner should approach grammar when they first  

start learning the language well I think Spanish  you know as a non-native learner of both Spanish  

and Russian or Slavic languages we shouldn't just  say Russian because all the Slavic languages have  

very similar grammar and they're very complicated  very complicated to me much more complicated than  

Spanish however Spanish Spanish has complicated  grammar but English has complicated grammar in  

sort of a strange kind of funny way and I would  get myself the smallest Spanish grammar book  

the thinnest read it once and forget it read  it and forget it don't ever deliberately try  

to learn any grammar rule because you won't  remember it then you need to get exposed to  

as much of the language as possible and that  exposure I mean I refer back to link you know  

it's just words you can learn words words words  words listen read listen read words words now you  

become more and more curious about the grammar  and once you are curious and you then go back  

to that little thin grammar book and read it again  more things are going to stick every language has  

ridiculous stuff has junk code every language  because language is developed naturally and if  

you focus on comprehension more important than  correct production of the language and if you  

focus therefore on vocabulary and when you do  produce the language focus on communication and  

if you are able to communicate with people and  you understand what they say as we were saying  

earlier you're going to get all of this feedback  input from the people you're speaking to and so  

then gradually your brain is going to develop the  proper language habits but it takes time yeah and

certain grammar patterns even when I don't know  them I'm like oh this thing has been like bugging  

me this whole week for example I've been seeing  it like over and over and over again I'm like okay  

it's time for me to look it up I feel like it's a  grammar thing I don't know what it is yeah so it's  

time like it's time it's so easy to look things  up now if you're curious about conjugation of a  

verb in Spanish you just Google it and you get  the whole thing and and you should be you should  

also accept the fact that you can look it up yeah  but that doesn't mean you've done it that you've  

learned it you're gonna forget it again and and  even so you just have to keep doing that and but  

it's so easy today it's like it's so much better  than 50 years ago when I was learning languages  

is you can look anything you want up and the last  thing I wanted to ask you talking about you and  

uh like when you're learning languages so for  example for me the reason why I started learning  

English and Spanish too is because of necessity  like I started learning English because everyone  

nowadays kind of has to speak English that's what  people say and because of my job because of my  

University I started learning Spanish because  I moved to Mexico what about you because you're  

learning and you can speak so many different  languages obviously there should be another  

reason not just because it's like necessary it  was necessary for you to learn a certain language  

so I mean the first language is French I had a  professor who got me very interested in French  

civilization I went to France did my University  training there joined the Canadian government I  

was sent Hong Kong to learn Mandarin Chinese that  was my job so I learned Mandarin then we moved to  

Japan so I learned Japanese because I lived there  once you realize that language learning is fun  

that you can do it takes time then you want to  do it again and with every language I learned  

like French or Chinese or Japanese you discover  so much about those people in that culture so  

that place comes alive for you I was watching uh  you know yeah Ukrainian TV and half the people  

speak Russian half the people speak Ukrainian I  can't understand the ukrainians well better learn  

Ukrainian so I can understand what they're saying  Persian and Arabic it's the Middle East I know so  

a little about that region of the world Arabic  Persian Turkish those three languages that's  

that's that world and it's a fascinating world and  you realize that we have so little about that part  

of the world in our school system I don't know  in other countries but in Canada we hardly know  

anything about them yeah so it's basically like  curiosity plus a challenge for you right okay so  

you're like oh exactly yeah and there is a sense  of achievement you know you start into Persian or  

Arabic you can't read all the little squigglies  you can't understand it's all zero like noise and  

after what wow for sure I understand I understand  I can get a podcast and I can understand half of  

it yeah so thank you so much for today thank  you so much okay I enjoyed it yeah thank you  

for answering all of my questions it was very  interesting I'm happy to do it very enjoyable  

yeah I look forward to doing it again yeah thank  you have a good day in Spanish in Spanish bye okay  

bye bye okay I think that was an amazing interview  I definitely had a great time chatting to Steve  

about language learning and I think his view  on learning grammar was definitely something  

unorthodox something that many people will be  like okay maybe I I don't agree with you but I'm  

gonna try and guess please try this don't think  that you should always be learning grammar that  

grammar is so important because unfortunately this  is what our education system is based on right now  

it's based on learning grammar all the time but  unfortunately this is not really how you learn  

a language and this is a tip from a polyglot from  a person who has already learned multiple foreign  

languages if you want to check the interview  on Steve's Channel with me where we share even  

more tips about language learning where Steve  asks me more personal questions about me make  

sure to click the link in the description and  I'll see you guys in my next video bye foreign