Polyglot Shares How To Become Fluent FAST! (Polyglot Milos Maricic)

Hello everyone.

Today, I'm very honored to  have Milaj Marichich with us.

He's a global expert on artificial  intelligence for finance and philanthropy.

He's a published writer, renowned speaker.

He teaches at the University of Geneva, and  he's a polyglot who speaks 7 languages fluently.

So Milaj, I have to ask you,  

are you just naturally talented  when it comes to learning languages?

Your, your intro mainly Blush and  Jennifer, thank you very much for that.

Talent has something to do with that for  sure, but it's not, it's not the full picture.

And when I, when I talk about that, I  usually use the example of my German.

It was the second foreign language  that I started to learn 2530 years ago.

And just because I never managed to to  find a real context for learning it,  

I never had the right approach.

Over the years it became my 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th,  

and now it's my seventh language  and I barely speak it fluently.

So you would think that if I was just naturally  

a talent, a genius for languages,  I would have picked it up sooner.

Well, to be honest, I think that makes me feel  a little bit better and I'm sure that makes my  

students feel a little bit better that even you  struggle with learning languages as a polyglot.

So why don't you share with us what  are some of the mistakes you think  

you learned when learning  German or other languages?

And then how did you learn from those who you  got better and better at learning languages?

I would identify maybe 2 mistakes.

The first one is being, being a perfectionist,  

so expecting to be fluent in  every language that you speak.

And I think this is something  that a lot of your students  

will and a lot of your viewers will identify with.

So we, I, for a really long time took  it personally when I made mistakes, you  

know, to shield away from speaking because I knew  that my language was not at a good enough level.

And with time, I just discovered that  that was just hindering my progress.

So that was number one mistake  #2 was that for a few languages,  

my approach was too academic at times.

So I would be doing grammar.

I've been trying to to visualize, to memorize  vocabulary, but I wasn't making it fun.

I wasn't finding a context in  which to speak the language.

I wasn't turning it into a game,  if you will, making it playful.

And that just made it more tedious.

So yeah, we'll talk about tips later on, but  I guess a couple of tips will come from that.

Yeah, so being a perfectionist  and maybe a little more to about  

academic or structured approach that was  probably boring or not that interesting.

I know I personally made those  mistakes when I was learning  

French as a second language  and they hindered me as well.

So now when you're speaking all 7 languages and  

other languages and let's say you make  a mistake, well, what do you do now?

How have you change your  approach from perfectionism?

What do you do?

I think that over the years I've,  for lack of a better expression,  

learn to split my personality  based on the language that I speak.

So it's almost like a role play.

So if I, if I speak French, I'm one  mileage, like one version of mileage.

When I'm speaking Spanish, I'm a different version  

of mileage with a different sort of cultural  background through which I learned Spanish.

And then when I'm speaking Russian,  it's a it's a third version of Milos.

And so I guess that has kind  of helped me just think a  

little bit less personally about those mistakes.

So what I make mistakes is that  version of Milos that's making them.

And it's not, you know, the, the, the real Milos.

So this, this kind of role-playing, it sounds a  bit silly, but it actually helped me quite a lot,  

you know, separate the, the notion of making  mistakes from my, you know, cherished identity.

I've heard polyglots talk about that before,  

and that makes sense because a lot  of my students will relate to this.

The mistakes you're, you're comparing how  you would speak in your own native language.

So if you have this separate identity,  

then that separate identity you  don't have that same comparison.

Is that what's helpful about that process?

Yeah, yeah.

For for some reason, we humans, we're really  touchy about things that we feel define us,  

you know, that they're a part of our identity.

And if you kind of separate that language,  speaking identity into almost like a different  

character, like something you're playing on a  stage, maybe sounds silly, but it's really helped.

It's really works for me to to also separate the  guilt that comes sometimes with making mistakes.

Yeah, it's such an interesting approach.

And hey, if it works, it works.

So thank you for sharing that.

And oh, before we go on, I do want  to thank my student and your student  

student Hiroshi, who introduced us  and suggested we have this interview.

So Hiroshi, if you're watching, thank you so  much for connecting us and making this possible.

Now we talked about the mistakes you made.

So let's talk about some of your successes.

Or what would you feel are the qualities  that you have or that successful language  

learners in general have that  make learning the language easier?

They find the context and they find an objective.

So in my in my case, I've been kind  of blessed to be able to speak 5 or  

6 languages on a daily basis because that's  just the people in my company, they speak them.

But looking back, my best periods  of language learning really helped.

What really happened when I had a context  through which to learn a language.

So if I had a girlfriend that spoke  the language or maybe flatmates,  

or I was working in a company where,  where the language was spoken.

And I think that that is by far the  best way to to be learning the language.

So, you know, having, having a context where you  don't actually have to make an effort and you're  

kind of confronted with the language,  whether you whether you like it or not.

And then the second thing is an objective.

So, so let's say I learned Russian to a reasonable  

intermediate degree before meeting  my wife, who is Russian speaking.

And then I put it to myself as an  objective to make my Russian really  

perfect so that I could speak with my in  laws, with her parents in a, you know,  

you know, in an unconstrained  sort of free, free flowing way.

And that was a fantastic,  fantastic source of motivation.

So different people will find different  sources of motivation either whether it's,  

you know, relationships or sports or business,  but it's really important to have an objective.

Those are two great points.

So the context and the  objective and a lot of people,  

other people have popularized the  idea of find your why, find your why.

Why are you becoming fluent in English?

Why is that important for you?

So thank you for sharing that.

But let's talk about the context because this is a  struggle for many of my students watching is they  

know their why they need to find a job or they  want to get a promote or they want to move abroad.

But currently they don't work in English.

They don't live in an English environment.

They don't have friends or or  romantic partners who speak English.

So they they unfortunately don't have the context.

Is there something that these students  can do to create more of that environment  

or context when they are more isolated  in a non-english speaking environment?

Absolutely.

And there are two layers to that.

First of all, the passive layer of  just being exposed to the language.

You talk talk a lot about that on your  channel and you give some great tips.

And I think this is something that  that people anywhere on earth can do.

So listening to music, watching films, just  just letting English come in through their ears.

The more difficult part, but still not  insurmountable, is getting to speak.

So getting to produce stuff in English.

There are many language exchange websites.

That would be my piece of advice.

If you really live in a place where  nobody speaks English and it's and,  

and there's no chance to work in English and  you cannot travel that much internationally,  

language exchange websites work really well.

Or maybe you'll find a pen pal with  whom you communicate in writing these.

These are relatively low cost, low hassle ways of  

getting to speak language if  you want to on a daily basis.

Perfect.

So for everyone watching, you  can still practice English,  

you can still become fluent even  if you don't have that context.

Just absorb yourself in the language and use the  resources like the exchange websites or a pen pal.

Those are wonderful tips.

Now you posted an article on Medium, which  I'll link to in the description as well.

Everyone, it's a wonderful article on Milosh's  experience learning a language very quickly.

And in that article you mentioned that  you rarely learn from formal study.

Now you talked about this previously  about one of your biggest mistakes  

was making it more academic, but can you  just talk about this a little bit more?

What do you consider formal study and  and why do you rarely use formal study?

I rarely do it because it is very  difficult to keep up the motivation.

So even as even for somebody like me for whom,  

who likes learning languages and for  whom languages are part of my identity,  

it is very difficult to keep it academic, you  know, and to everyday go through lessons in  

a note in a book or go through your flash cards  and just keep doing that month in, month out.

It is, it is just not practically feasible,  at least for somebody, somebody like me.

And what I mean by formal study is that so it's,  

you know, doing grammar exercises,  trying to, to memorize vocabulary.

It's going through a book that's meant that's  obviously not specifically designed for you.

It's there for everybody.

So, so I, I think I talk about an example in  the article where I was, I started working  

with a Hungarian teacher, a lovely lady who  had worked with many people and had success.

But, you know, she was going  through this book lesson by lesson.

And the lessons were not that useful  for my language study because I needed  

to learn the Hungarian to be able to  speak to a consulate at the embassy,  

whereas lessons were about, you know,  fish soup and, and, and words like that.

So, so, so yeah, that there are there are  definite downsides to to formal study.

I can relate to that.

I remember in one of my first Spanish classes,  

the teacher was reviewing names of animals,  but things like a hedgehog, a horse, a donkey.

When am I ever going to use these words as  a speaking Spanish as a second language?

Like it wasn't relevant to me,  it wasn't interesting to me.

And I quickly became very bored  and lost motivation and didn't  

want to take those classes anymore at all.

So I can definitely relate to that.

But on the other hand, of course,  we do need to learn the structure,  

vocabulary, grammar, and these  formal rules of a language.

That is important.

So how do you personally  approach balancing formal study?

Well, not formal, but the technical language.

So getting the input of the language and  then getting output from the language.

So, speaking the language, how do you  balance those two areas of language learning?

So if we talk about the best way  to to approach learning a language,  

well, we talked about having objective, we  talked about having a context and the next,  

the the next maybe layer of  importance is having a good teacher.

And so having a good teacher like like  yourself obviously makes a huge difference,  

not only for motivation, but also a teacher  needs to be able to recognize the speed with  

which the the student is able to learn and then  challenge them to learn at that, at that speed.

And on the student side, what makes  a student really capable of learning,  

even if it's their first foreign  language, it's if they're really fluent,  

and this is going to sound parallaxical, but  if they're really fluent in their own language,  

being fluent in your own language means  that you know, it's grammar, you know,  

it's engine, you know how tenses are built, you  know what an imperative is and so on and so on.

And if you really understand the mechanics of a  language and, and grammar is kind of the heart  

of that, then you can just take that and apply  it to any other language without any issues.

Because the teacher can just  tell you, well, you know,  

this exact same thing with these  small changes and, and you're good.

And I think actually becoming a polyglot.

So when you have your 5 languages, adding  a 6th, the, the biggest added value from  

the 1st 5 languages is that is that you have  the experience with all those different types  

of grammar or little intricacies of grammar  that you can then just just bring up to your,  

to your brain and just deploy on  the, on the additional language.

But if it's your first foreign  language, then yeah, knowing your,  

your native language, knowing how  grammar works and having a great  

teacher that can that lead you at the  speed at which you can, you can travel.

That's super important.

Yeah, great tips.

And that being sense for sure, I  think of if you're learning a sport,  

maybe you're learning to play tennis and  you understand how a racket sport works.

And then if you learn another racket sport,  

then it it's a lot easier because you  already know that one racket sport.

So it's just it becomes easier and easier.

But that's true.

And a lot of us, we don't know  the structure of our own language  

until you become a language learner or  teacher and then you understand it now.

And I remember from your Medium article,  you also talked about how you would  

practice speaking for at least one hour  per day, if I'm remembering correctly.

So how did you do that practice?

Was it with a partner?

Was it a loan, a teacher?

Chaji BT What are the different ways  that you would use to practice speaking?

Sometimes with the teacher, sometimes just  with a conversation partner, because the  

pressure is a little bit lower, you don't feel  like your every mistake is is being perceived.

You know, sometimes you also need to  release the pressure a little bit and relax.

So yeah, definitely speaking  whatever context I could find.

But also there's another thing that I  think over e-mail we we talked about,  

which was thinking to myself,  quote UN quote in the language.

And that's maybe one thing that not a lot of  people do and it's interesting, but I would spend  

a few minutes per day trying to think in the  

language by giving myself scenarios  again, like role-playing scenarios.

So maybe I would imagine that I was  giving a presentation in the language,  

in this case Hungarian, on any topic.

And then I would think about how I would be  delivering that presentation to an audience.

And I would be doing this while  riding my motorcycle or being,  

you know, just just walking or going to  pick up my children at the kindergarten.

It sounds a bit funny, but  actually in my experience,  

it is almost the same as actually speaking.

So as, as actually delivering  the, the presentation.

And I think it has parallels to you use  the racket sports as, as an example.

So Novak Djokovic, the, the, the, the  famous tennis player who is Serbian,  

he talks a lot about visualization.

So visualizing, visualizing what's  going to happen during the match,  

good or bad before you actually do it.

And he says that the, the act of  visualizing actually prepares him.

And I think when it comes to language  learning, that sort of visualization  

of of verbal production is always the  same as the real thing, at least for me.

Yeah, that's an excellent tip.

And for sure we hear this about athletes  doing this a lot, this visualization,  

seeing themselves jump over the pole or  whatever it might be to help them prepare.

But we can all do this.

And I prepared for our conversation now.

I reviewed all what I'm going to ask you and just  

went through it in my head this  morning as I was getting ready.

And it helped me as a native speaker,  

feel more prepared and confident for  this exact conversation we're having now.

Yeah, and it shows and, you know, and  and it just there's so many benefits.

You become more relaxed, your more it  ease your your breathing becomes deeper.

Yeah, preparation is super important.

Absolutely, so everyone you can prepare on your  own for all conversations that you may have.

Now on the topic of speaking,  

this is definitely the most common  frustration I have with my students.

They say with their language,  OK, I can conjugate verb tenses,  

I know the grammar rules, I I  know the definitions to words.

I can write, I can read, but I just can't speak.

When I open my mouth, I forget my  words or it just doesn't come out.

Do you have any advice?

Is that something you personally experienced as a  language learner or what advice could you share?

My first piece of advice would be to relax.

So of course it's going to happen and  not only with language learning or,  

or or speaking a language that just don't speak  so well, but also speaking your own language.

So you and I speak English and  all of a sudden somebody asks  

us to give a presentation in front of 5000 people.

We are starting to forget our  words and become anxious and so on.

So it's just, it's something  that happens to to everybody.

The second thing would be you  already speak the language.

So it's just a matter of, of level  fluency, number of errors and so on.

So it's a continuum.

So it's not a, it's not a, it's, there's no,  there's no switch that happens between I cannot  

speak the language, I'm not confident  and I can speak the language and I can,  

I can deliver a, you know,  Physiology presentation.

So it's a continuum.

And it's important to find that quick, not  quick wins, but but wins along the way.

So if you are just starting to learn the language  

to maybe understanding a 3 minute episode  of something on YouTube would be great.

And then maybe later on having a  phone call in the language, maybe,  

maybe the next step and so on and so on and so on.

So having these milestones, I think really helps  because that's why you convince yourself also.

That you are progressing irrespective  of how it might look at certain times.

Yeah, that's great advice and I like  that because it's just a small step,  

a small step and then keep going, keep  going and all of a sudden you're speaking.

But again, just relax and it's  not that big of a deal either way.

That's great.

It's.

Fine.

So if my students were to do one thing  this week to improve their fluency,  

what would you recommend they do?

Definitely find the context  for for their English learning.

So when you have a context, whether it's a  pen pal, whether it's a conversation partner,  

whether it's some shows you watch and so  on, everything just becomes so much easier.

It becomes it becomes a game  as opposed to an obligation.

So finding the context for their  English learning super important.

All right, everyone, you have your work this week.

Find your context now.

Milaj, I'll share the Medium article  you wrote in the description.

Are there any other resources you would like  

to mention or any other ways that  my students can connect with you?

Well, you know, Jennifer, we discussed before  coming on air that this is not exactly what I do.

It's I'm just a polyglot amongst other things.

But I'm, I'm always happy to, to answer people's  

queries and questions to  the extent to which I can.

So maybe Medium would be a  good way to, to contact me.

So do read that article and then if you  have any additional questions, reach out.

And I try to I get a lot of  reactions to that article,  

but I try to respond to most of them  and and try and give guidance if I can.

Well, absolutely, and again, because  this isn't what you do professionally,  

you're not a professional language teacher.

You just are a polyglot who uses these  languages languages in your day-to-day life.

I appreciate you so much  coming on here and sharing  

this advice so generously with my  students and absolutely everyone.

Read the media article, I loved  it and I know you will too.

So thank you again so much for being here, Milosh.

It's been a pleasure.

It was a pleasure, Jennifer, really.