Exposing the SECRETS every polyglot knows but won’t tell you

over the years I have studied quite a few  languages French English ASL Chinese and  

Spanish but now I really only speak three English  Spanish and of course my native language Russian  

so no technically I'm not a polyglot but I do  have a lot of polyglot friends and let me tell  

you the way they learn languages is completely  different from what we were taught in schools  

you know that feeling when you have been learning  English for 10 years but somehow you still freeze  

every time you try to say a sentence the thing  is these polyglot secrets I'm about to share  

aren't really Secrets at all they're just smarter  ways to approach learning that most of us aren't  

really used to okay so the first secret is I have  noticed that polyglots tend to learn pronunciation  

first to build confidence it's honestly one of  the things that I learned from Gabrielle winer's  

book fluent forever and this book is amazing  for anyone who wants to understand how language  

learning works and how to approach language  learning in a better way and so in this book Gab  

recommends prioritizing pronunciation from the  very beginning he's a polyglot and he knows what  

works and what doesn't most of us grow up  learning languages by memorizing vocabulary  

lists or trying to cram all the grammar rules we  don't really speak a lot and we don't really work  

on our pronunciation but if you ask a polyglot  they'll tell you forget that for now focus on  

your pronunciation first and honestly to me that  makes perfect sense because if you can pronounce  

words correctly early on you're going to feel more  confident when you actually speak the language  

you're not really going to have this sphar of  sounding awkward or sounding weird and plus if  

your pronunciation is on point native speakers  are a lot more likely to engage with you even if  

you mess up grammar if you mess up vocabulary for  example I'm learning Spanish right now and I know  

that a lot of people really struggle with this  rolling art sound like R like in the word ferar  

and I know a lot of language Learners just avoid  it they choose not to practice this sound but what  

a polygo would do they would actually practice  the sound constantly all the time until something  

clicks and suddenly they can roll their RS because  when you focus on sounds that really builds your  

confidence and makes you keep going keep improving  and it just so happened that I read Gabrielle's  

book when I just started learning Spanish  and so his advice on focusing on pronouncing  

ation first helped me so much helped me with my  pronunciation in Spanish with all the different  

sounds understanding and mastering them I was  practicing all the words out loud even though  

my vocabulary was Tiny at the very beginning and  it honestly gave me so much more confidence to  

start speaking sooner instead of just waiting for  the moment when I felt ready because again the  

goal of language learning isn't perfection it's  getting comfortable with the way the language  

feels and sounds bance when you personally use  it the second thing that my polylove friends  

often tell me is that they focus on comprehension  over grammar rules again in schools we're used to  

learning grammar cramming all of the grammar rules  doing all of these grammar exercises every single  

day but polyglots actually learn a little bit  differently instead of mastering every single  

grammar R up front they focus on understanding  the message and letting grammar improve  

over time you know when I actually get to that  point I'm going to learn this grammar rule like  

this expression in English we will cross the  bridge when we get to it something like this  

and guys believe me when you stop obsessing over  grammar it becomes so much easier to pick up words  

pick up Expressions that you actually need to  use every single day and then eventually you're  

going to notice a really interesting pattern for  example you're going to hear that a lot of people  

maybe like in books movies your friends people  you talk to they use this in their sentences I  

have been doing something and then you get curious  like what does it mean have been doing what kind  

of grammar rule is that you feel ready to learn  it because you have been surrounded with this  

grammar rule for a while and now you're ready  to start actually using it yourself now when it  

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the next polyglot secret is a really interesting  one it's all about focusing on high frequency  

words at the very beginning it's something that I  learned from Gabrielle's book A lot of my polylove  

friends will tell me the exact same thing the  first thing they do is they try to memorize the  

most common 500 words in this language and then  they move on and do something else the reason why  

they try to master high fre frequency words first  is because those words usually cover 80 to 90% of  

everyday conversations and usually that's their  goal they want to speak the language in their  

everyday life and then after they master all of  these high frequency words they focus on building  

their own vocabulary like the things that they do  in their everyday lives their Hobbies their job I  

know their pet like stuff like that things that  they need to use in their everyday lives because  

for a polygo language is a tool it's a tool to  communicate their thoughts their experiences  

they want to meet new people they really want to  become conversational as fast as possible they  

don't just learn words they put them to action  as early as possible okay now let's talk about  

the next sneaky secrets of polyglots and that is  they create opportunities for conversations early  

even if it means starting with just a few phrases  a lot of my friends shared this philosophy with me  

you don't learn to speak by learning you learn to  speak by speaking and honestly when I think about  

it it makes a lot of sense because I understand  that even a small conversation is a great  

opportunity for me to improve my speaking skills  to practice talking to a real person I think this  

principle of speaking early on is really connected  to treating a language as a tool I going to use it  

to communicate with other people and so if that's  the goal I have to start speaking I can't just sit  

read my textbook and wait for months months and  months and months I'm going to learn to speak  

I'm going to build this confidence a lot faster  if I start speaking right now because honestly  

I will never be ready if I just wait until I'm  ready there will always be excuses I will always  

feel anxious stressed maybe a little blit bearen  because it's not my native language and that's  

absolutely okay so learning how to deal with all  of these emotions I think is more important than  

waiting and waiting and waiting and starting with  something easy you know super easy conversations  

it doesn't have to be a super stressful situation  I think you actually have to help yourself if you  

know that speaking this language is really  stressful for you create an environment for  

yourself where you feel less stressed instead  of more stressed and anxious but I know that  

we just talked about speaking early on however  I also know polyglots who try to Leverage The  

Silent period instead they don't actually rush to  speak early on you know from the first lesson from  

the first day they actually wait and I think that  also shows that polyglots are humans and we're all  

different you know for some people this approach  works better for other people this other approach  

Mark work better so the silent period is basically  a phase of passive learning and observing you're  

focusing a lot on the input of learning the  new information of putting all of this new  

information in your brain instead of producing  information instead of focusing on the output  

and the thinking behind this approach is that you  first need to get comfortable with the sound the  

Rhythm the intonation of the language before you  push yourself to speak this language it's like you  

know first you're focusing on tuning your brain  to the music of this language before actually  

producing this music writing this music yourself  I think this technique the technique of the  

silent period is really connected to how babies  learn the language so it focuses more on look  

let's observe the babies see how they're  learning the language and let's copy them  

because at the beginning babies don't really talk  right they observe they're in the environment it  

takes months for them to actually start producing  sounds and so that's why sound polyglots prefer to  

actually immerse themselves in the environment  in the sound and not really Rush when it comes  

to speaking you know I'm learning the language  I'm in the environment I'm listening a lot I'm  

reading a lot and I know that sooner or later I'm  going to start speaking but actually when I start  

speaking I know that my pronunciation is going  to be really good because I have spent a lot of  

time listening to this language practicing all  the sounds because languages aren't just about  

words they are about how words are said and this  is a very important point in language learning  

the way you say words matters like for example  French has a very different flow and emphasis  

than English than Russian then Spanish every  single language is unique here and so listening  

a lot can help you internalize all of these subtle  nuances and if you do choose to follow the salent  

period I think it will really help you feel more  connected to the language because you will spend  

at the beginning a lot of time just listening to  the language watching videos trying to work on  

your pronunciation you know slowly step by step  instead of rushing to speak instead of rushing  

to make sure your pronunciation is perfect and so  I think you will will kind of have more time to  

really recognize all the patterns of the language  to become connected with the language to become  

more of a bigger part of this language and this  is how we move on to developing an identity around  

the languages that polyglots are learning we all  know that culture is a huge part of the language  

and when a language becomes a part of who you  are like your routine your interests I know your  

friends you are way way more likely to stick with  it to actually continue learning this language no  

for them it becomes a part of their identity  it's not just a task a thing they have to do  

they switch their phones to this language they  start celebrating cultural holidays they start  

watching all of those videos on YouTube about the  culture of the specific country they meet people  

who speak this language who become their friends  and so all of this creates a very complicated  

very interesting world that is not just about  completing a university task because you're  

learning this language at University it becomes  who they are a part of their identity so I think  

it's going to be it for this video if you liked  it please don't forget to give it a thumbs up and  

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topic of secret things I highly recommend  checking out this video right here where I  

share nine secret resources to learn English as an  adult just click right here and keep on watching