I’ve learned 20 languages: what keeps me going?

Summary

The speaker shares his personal journey of language acquisition, emphasizing the importance of connections in learning. Starting with French and progressing through Spanish, Italian, and others, he highlights the role of interest, travel, and effort in mastering languages. He discusses the challenges and similarities between languages, such as Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese, and explains how historical and cultural ties influenced his learning of Slavic languages and others. The narrative underscores the interconnectedness of language learning and the value of using bilingual dictionaries to build upon known vocabulary.

Takeaways

• 🌱 Language acquisition is a natural process that involves absorbing language through accessible input and forming connections.
• 🏫 The speaker's first deliberate language acquisition was French, influenced by a professor at McGill University which sparked interest and led to living in France.
• 🔗 The ease of transitioning from French to Spanish was facilitated by physical travel and constant conversation, emphasizing the importance of real-world practice.
• 📚 Despite similarities, the speaker highlights the individuality of each language, noting the need for dedicated study, such as using Linguaphone for Italian.
• 🌐 The speaker's language learning journey was influenced by geographical and cultural proximity, moving from Spanish to Italian, and then to Portuguese and Romanian.
• 🎓 Learning Mandarin was challenging due to its distinct pronunciation and writing system compared to Cantonese, despite similar vocabulary.
• 🌍 The speaker's move to Japan and interest in nearby Korea led to learning Japanese and Korean, showing how living in a country can motivate language learning.
• 📖 Reading Dostoyevsky and other Russian literature inspired the speaker to learn Russian, demonstrating the power of cultural interest in language acquisition.
• 🎧 Utilizing resources like Ekho Moskvy radio helped the speaker improve Russian and transition to learning Czech, showing the value of media in language learning.
• 🔄 The speaker's Slavic language learning was further connected by historical ties and personal experiences, such as learning Ukrainian due to political events and Polish due to shared vocabulary.
• 📝 The importance of using bilingual dictionaries is emphasized for making connections between known and new vocabulary, rather than relying on monolingual dictionaries which can be confusing.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the speaker's discussion on language acquisition?

The main theme is the natural process of language acquisition and the importance of connections or linkages between languages and personal experiences in learning them.

What was the first language the speaker deliberately sought to acquire and why?

The first language the speaker deliberately sought to acquire was French because it was taught at school, and he had a lot of exposure to it through grammar exercises and drills.

How did the speaker's experience with French influence his learning of other languages?

The speaker's experience with French led him to live in France for three years, which in turn made it easier for him to connect to and learn neighboring languages like Spanish.

What is the significance of 'connections' in the speaker's language learning journey?

Connections are significant because they provide a sense of purpose and motivation, helping the speaker to immerse himself in the language and culture, thus facilitating language acquisition.

How did the speaker's encounter with Italian happen and what was the outcome?

The speaker's encounter with Italian happened when he hitchhiked to Italy and tried out his Spanish, which led to building up a bit of a sense of Italian through interaction.

What challenges did the speaker face when learning Mandarin and Cantonese?

The speaker faced challenges with pronunciation and the fact that despite similar vocabulary, Mandarin and Cantonese are quite different in their phonetic systems.

Why did the speaker decide to learn Russian and how did he approach it?

The speaker decided to learn Russian due to his interest in Russian literature and a desire to avoid a grammar-focused learning style. He approached it through a lot of input, such as movies and listening to radio stations.

How did the speaker's learning of Slavic languages connect to his personal background?

The speaker's learning of Slavic languages connected to his personal background as his parents were from Czechoslovakia, which motivated him to learn Czech.

What was the speaker's experience with learning Korean and why was it challenging?

The speaker found learning Korean challenging despite the shared vocabulary with Japanese and Chinese characters. He struggled to achieve proficiency due to the language's unique structure and the need for extensive listening, reading, and speaking practice.

How did the speaker's business in Romania influence his decision to learn Romanian?

The speaker's business in Romania provided a practical reason to learn Romanian. Additionally, Romanian's connection to the Romance languages made it easier for him to learn.

What is the speaker's view on using bilingual dictionaries versus monolingual dictionaries for language learning?

The speaker prefers using bilingual dictionaries because they allow for connections to words and concepts he already knows, whereas monolingual dictionaries in the target language might present many unfamiliar words.

Outlines

00:00

🌐 The Power of Connections in Language Learning

The speaker discusses the natural process of language acquisition and the importance of connections in learning new languages. He shares his personal journey of learning languages such as French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian, emphasizing the role of personal experiences and deliberate efforts in language acquisition. The speaker also highlights the challenges of learning related languages and the necessity to treat each language as unique, despite similarities.

05:01

🎥 Cultural Attraction and Emotional Ties in Language Acquisition

The speaker narrates his experience with Slavic and Asian languages, influenced by cultural and historical interests. He describes learning Russian through exposure to movies and radio, which created an emotional connection. This connection led him to learn Czech, Ukrainian, and Polish due to shared history and cultural ties. The speaker also touches on the Balkan languages and his journey to learn Greek, Turkish, Arabic, and Farsi, illustrating how historical and geographical connections can influence language learning.

10:02

🔗 Embracing Connections for Effective Language Learning

In the concluding paragraph, the speaker reiterates the significance of connections in language learning. He reflects on the process of creating associations between new and known words, advocating for the use of bilingual dictionaries. The speaker shares his belief that connections are integral to forming memories and effectively learning languages, and he invites feedback from the audience, summarizing his journey through various languages and the connections that facilitated his learning.

Keywords

💡Language acquisition

Language acquisition refers to the natural process of learning a language without deliberate instruction, as opposed to language learning which is more structured. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of input and connections in acquiring languages, highlighting the natural progression from French to Spanish and other Romance languages.

💡Input

Input in language learning is the language content that learners are exposed to and can absorb. The speaker mentions that to acquire a language, there must be a way to absorb the language through input, which is a key part of the natural process of language acquisition.

💡Connections

Connections in the context of language learning are the linkages or associations that help integrate new language knowledge with existing knowledge. The speaker discusses how connections to French led to learning Spanish and other languages, emphasizing the role of personal experiences and cultural ties in language acquisition.

💡French

French is the first language the speaker deliberately sought to acquire. It serves as a starting point in the speaker's journey of language learning, with the mention of a professor who made French civilization interesting, leading to a deeper connection and subsequent language acquisition.

💡Spanish

Spanish is a neighboring language to French in terms of vocabulary and structure. The speaker's experience with Spanish began with the knowledge of French and was further developed through immersion during hitchhiking trips in Spain, illustrating the role of immersion in language acquisition.

💡Italian

Italian is another Romance language that the speaker built a sense of through connections made in Spain. The speaker's attempt to use Spanish in Italy and the subsequent feedback helped in acquiring some understanding of Italian, showing how language learning can be a fluid and interconnected process.

💡Portuguese

Portuguese, despite its closeness to Spanish in vocabulary, was challenging for the speaker initially due to its distinct phonetic features. The speaker's experience with Portuguese illustrates that even closely related languages require effort and cannot be easily acquired through osmosis.

💡Asian languages

Asian languages mentioned in the script include Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean. The speaker's experiences with these languages highlight the challenges of learning languages with different scripts and grammatical structures, even when there is shared vocabulary or cultural proximity.

💡Mandarin

Mandarin is a language the speaker learned with the help of being sent to China by the Canadian government. Mandarin serves as an example of how external factors, such as work assignments, can facilitate language acquisition.

💡Cantonese

Cantonese, despite its similarity in vocabulary to Mandarin, posed pronunciation challenges for the speaker. The mention of Cantonese underscores the importance of not underestimating the differences between closely related languages and the effort required to master them.

💡Slavic languages

Slavic languages, including Russian, Czech, Ukrainian, and Polish, are a group of languages the speaker learned later in life. The speaker's journey through Slavic languages was influenced by personal connections, such as family heritage and historical interest, demonstrating how personal relevance can enhance language learning.

Highlights

Language acquisition is a natural process that happens through input from language content that can be absorbed.

The speaker's first deliberate language acquisition was French, influenced by a professor at McGill University.

French led to learning Spanish through immersion during hitchhiking trips in Spain.

Italian was picked up through interactions in Italy, building on the speaker's existing knowledge of Spanish.

Effort is necessary to learn even related languages, contrary to the idea that they can be easily picked up.

The speaker learned Portuguese despite initial difficulty distinguishing it from Spanish due to vowel pronunciation.

Mandarin was learned with difficulty, highlighting the distinction between Mandarin and Cantonese despite similar vocabulary.

Japanese was learned while living in Japan, attracted by the use of Chinese characters and cultural proximity.

Korean was attempted but proved more challenging than expected, despite geographical and cultural proximity to Japan.

The speaker's interest in Slavic languages was sparked by reading Russian literature as a teenager.

Learning Russian was facilitated by emotional connections, such as watching Russian movies and listening to radio.

Czech was learned due to familial connections and an engaging radio program about Czech history.

Ukrainian was learned out of sympathy and connection to the country's struggle for independence.

Polish was learned due to vocabulary similarities with Ukrainian and historical cultural connections.

Romanian was learned for business purposes and because of its connection to the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The speaker learned Greek while in Crete, influenced by the region's historical and cultural significance.

Arabic and Farsi were learned due to interest in the Middle East and the shared writing system between the two languages.

The importance of using bilingual dictionaries for language learning to leverage known vocabulary and make connections.

The concept of connections in language learning, emphasizing the role of linking new information to existing knowledge.

Transcripts

Language acquisition, as opposed to the deliberate learning of languages,

language acquisition is a natural process.

And we learn through input from language content that.

We are able to absorb in some way.

That's how we transfer a language, which we don't have inside us.

We bring it into us.

But in order for that to work, there have to be some linkages, some connections.

And today I want to talk about some of those connections and talk a bit

about how I learned languages and what were the key connections, dare

I say links, that brought me to the different languages that I have learned

to different levels throughout my life.

The first language that I deliberately sought to acquire

was French, which I had at school.

And so I had a lot of exposure and I, we did grammar exercises and drills, but I

couldn't speak until I had a professor.

And I've told this story before at McGill university, professor Rabotin.

Who made French civilization interesting to me.

There was a link there.

There was a connection.

As a result, I ended up going to France.

I studied there for three years.

I hitchhiked around France.

So there was a connection.

Now it's easy to then connect from French to a neighboring language,

neighboring in the sense of.

Vocabulary and structure, which of course was Spanish.

So with my French knowledge, I went to Spain, hitchhiked around in Spain.

I would be sitting in a car with a driver or sitting in a truck with a truck driver.

And I would have to speak the whole time.

So the language was coming at me all the time.

And even if I didn't quite understand what they were saying, I would say

something to keep the conversation going and I would acquire the language.

So that connection there was from.

French to Spanish and my hitchhiking took me to Italy and I tried out my

Spanish and I've got Italian back.

And through that connection, I built up a bit of a sense of Italian.

Ultimately though, and I think this is an important point.

We don't just fall into languages.

A lot of effort is needed to learn languages, even related or neighboring

languages, so I can remember buying a Linguaphone series, or maybe I got

a second hand for Italian and listen to it over and over and over again,

because I couldn't treat Italian as just some kind of form of Spanish.

It's a different language and it has a lot of idiosyncrasies of its own.

Later on, I was to learn Portuguese to a certain level and Romanian.

I'll explain how I got there.

But the thing about the Portuguese, which is so close to Spanish in vocabulary, in

fact, for the longest time, I couldn't.

I couldn't even identify it as Portuguese before I started studying it.

It sounded to me more like Russian because the Portuguese, they kind of

chew their vowels like the Russians do.

So it's not obvious that connection is there.

It can be a source of attraction, but it doesn't mean you can just expect

to learn the related language easily.

So the next group of languages that I went to was Asian languages.

Now by Asian languages, I'm referring to Chinese, therefore Mandarin and

Cantonese, and Japanese and Korean.

Now I learned Mandarin.

I had a lot of trouble with Cantonese.

I had to devote myself to learning Cantonese, even though the vocabulary

is extremely similar, but the pronunciation is quite different.

The writing system is the same.

Essentially Mandarin speakers tend to use simplified more, Cantonese

speakers tend to use simplified.

Traditional more, but the difference between the two is not very great, but

then it ended up that I moved to Japan.

But here again, related languages only in the sense that they're

part of the same culture, broadly speaking, and Japanese uses Chinese

characters, but the underlying language of course is quite different.

However, the attraction for me to learn Japanese is that.

Is that I was living there.

The attraction to learn Mandarin was that I was sent there to learn Chinese

by my employer, the Canadian government.

But while living in Japan, I said, you know, Korea isn't far away.

Uh, it also uses Chinese characters.

It should be easy for me.

So that was again, the connection to Korean.

I have never managed to do as well in Korean as I had hoped.

Again, confirming the fact that even though there are similarities

and there's a lot of shared vocabulary, it's still difficult.

Different language.

And it takes a lot of effort, a lot of listening, a lot of reading, and

eventually a lot of speaking in order to become proficient in that language.

Similarly, you know, Vietnamese, I visited Vietnam with my wife and some friends,

and it also has, I gather a lot of Chinese words in their language, but I got

nowhere, I grabbed a phrase book before going and I wasn't able to say anything.

So related languages can be a source of attraction.

It doesn't mean it's a slam dunk.

To learn those languages.

So after the Asian languages, which are grouped as Asian because they're,

they share vocabulary, they're geographically close to each other.

But they are part of different language systems.

Then I went to the Slavic system and my link or the connection there was

that as a teenager, I had read The Idiot by Dostoyevsky, Anna Karenina.

It seems so exotic, you know, so I said, geez, I should learn that language.

Plus I want to do it without this tremendous focus on grammar that seems

to be the style in teaching Russian.

And so I learned Russian through a lot of input, again, connections, for example,

even, you know, movies, videos that I couldn't really understand that well.

It increased that connection, that emotional tie.

I still remember Justoki Romance, which was one of the first, uh, Russian

movies that I saw, and it was, you know, the vogue, uh, 19th century.

It was so romantic and exotic.

And that was that connection again, that pulled me towards the language.

Similarly, I discovered this radio station, Ekho Moskvy, which had

all kinds of audio and text content on it that I could listen to daily

and learn about politics in Russia.

While improving my Russian after that, because of course, Russian is

a Slavic language and my father and my parents were from Czechoslovakia.

I said, you know, I should learn Czech.

And I discovered this wonderful radio program called Tolki Českominulosti,

which talks about the history of the Czech lands, you know, Bohemian Moravia.

And, uh, eventually the Austro Hungarian empire.

And, but even going back to the, uh, Holy Roman empire, which was largely, of

course, different parts of Germany and Austria and, uh, having visited Prague,

of course, it's all meaningful to me.

And so I went from Russian to Czech because there's a

connection there, obviously.

And while I was into my Russian period, then we had the events

in, in Ukraine of 2014 and someone directed me towards Schuster Live,

a TV program, uh, in Ukraine.

At that time, the Ukrainians tended to speak 50 percent of the time in Russian,

50 percent of the time in Ukrainian.

I couldn't understand the Ukrainians.

Uh, of course I have tremendous sympathy for what they are trying to do to achieve

genuine independence for their country.

So then I went and learned Ukrainian.

So that's still staying within that Slavic range, that connection from Russian to

Czech, then to Ukrainian, and then to Polish, because a lot of the vocabulary in

Ukrainian is similar to Polish vocabulary.

And of course, Ukraine was under Poland for a long, long time.

And, uh, culturally they were connected, uh, until.

A range of historical events, uh, changed the course of Ukrainian

history, at least for parts of Ukraine.

But with Ukraine and Poland now, we're in the Austro Hungarian empire again.

So that kind of directs me towards Romanian and, which was part

of the Austro Hungarian empire.

And I was doing business in Romania, so I decided to learn Romanian, but it's of

course connected to the Romance languages.

And it was quite easy to learn for that reason.

Although it has some grammatical structures that are different.

One of the interesting grammatical structures in Romanian is this sort of

double conjugation, in other words, in English, we use the infinitive, I want

to go, in Romanian they say, I want, I go, but they do that as well in Greek.

They do it in apparently in other Balkan languages.

So that's kind of interesting.

So that was a connection, sort of a Balkan connection.

And once we're in the Balkans, then with my wife, we were in Croatia.

We also went to Crete.

And of course, uh, not only was Venice a part of the Austro Hungarian empire,

but of course, the Venetians were very active, uh, in the old Adriatic.

So in Crete, they have these wonderful towns that are Venetian towns, but

they speak Greek and I learned my Greek for the period that we were in Crete.

Now we're getting closer to Turkey because even when we were in Croatia,

we went up to Sarajevo and the Turkish influence there is very evident in

their buildings and the structures.

There was lots of mosques and that kind of thing.

And, uh, there are still, uh, Turkish speakers in, in the Balkans.

So now we move to the other side of the, uh, Hellespont.

Because I visited Jordan, I got interested in Arabic.

And so I'm learning Arabic.

And then I decided to learn Farsi, which it shares the writing system, shares about

15 percent of the vocabulary with Arabic.

But it's a Indo European language.

And of course, once you start studying the history of that region, you

see the extent to which even in the Caliphate, the Umayyad Caliphate,

and more so in the Abbasid Caliphate, the Persian speakers and the Turks

who were more of the soldiers.

We're very influential in those governments.

And eventually they would go off and form other, you know, countries.

And the Turks were very influential in establishing certain, uh,

you know, Iranian dynasties, the Safavid dynasty, for example.

And if we venture further afield into central Asia, we see this

mixing of Farsi and Turkish in Samarkand and Bukhara and so forth.

And if you want to further afield, we'll get to the Uyghurs who at

one point had a powerful state.

And, uh, even in China during the Tang dynasty, Turkish soldiers

and generals and, uh, and Persians were very influential.

And of course, Buddhism came through the Silk Road.

So.

Everything connects, it's connections.

And when we learn the language, we learn new words and we connect them to words

that we already know, which is why I only ever use a bilingual dictionary.

I cannot understand how people can learn a language using a monolingual

dictionary, where they see explanations in the language they're trying to

learn, where they're inevitably going to find many words they don't understand.

Connected to words, you know, Connected to feelings you have connected to memories

you have when you go to speak, you have to connect what you would like to say

your utterance has to connect somehow to words and structures that you have in

memory that you can pull out and start using neurons connect with each other.

So it's all about connections.

And actually, when we.

Created link, the reason we call it link, not link you.

And why we went with that word was that to me, connections,

linkages, they are, that is such a big part of, of language learning.

And so I just was thinking about that, that the other day, and I thought it

would be kind of interesting to take you through a bit of a walk through some of

the languages I have learned, how they connect, why they connect and where it

helped me and where it didn't help me.

So there you have it.

And, uh, I look forward to your comments.

Thank you.

Bye.