How to start learning a language-Language tips from a Polyglot

Hi guys, it's me, Judy. I'm a first-year medical student in Turkey, and today we're gonna be talking about how to start learning a new language. A lot of people want to learn a new language, but most of us don't know where to start or what to do. So, I hope this video will be helpful to you guys. I will timestamp every single thing down in the description below, so that you can skip to the part that you're interested in.

So let's get started. Like before the video, I just want to ramble a bit. Yesterday, I did a collab with Muscle Watching; he's a popular exercise YouTuber. The exercise we did on his channel was so freaking hard! At my ah! I have like muscle pain everywhere, and I'm like so tired today. So I don't wear any makeup; I'm just like looking very tired. But it's just like because of that workout. But I'm good, you guys. So yeah, anyways, let's get started.

Okay, so let's start with the first one, which is choosing your language. Obviously, in order to start to learn a language, you need to choose a language that you want to learn. If you just want to learn a new language but don't know which one to learn, then choose a language based upon employment opportunities, difficulty, availability of resources, number of speakers, but most importantly, the language that you will enjoy and that you want to learn: the culture, language, people, etc. But the most, most, most important factor is the language that you want to learn and that you will enjoy. Don't forget that.

Okay, so when you choose what language to learn, we're moving to the next step, which is finding a language book that you will use throughout your journey. I will recommend different stuff for beginners and for intermediates. So let's start with the beginners. I will put a link down in the description below about the language books that you can choose for various languages. This recommendation was taken from the book "Fluent Forever," which I read for the sake of this video, which is a bit of a long book, but it explains with a scientific background. So I thought it might be helpful to you guys.

In that book, the author was recommending language books for various languages, so I thought it would be helpful to you guys. So I will link that down in the description below so that you can find the language that you want to learn and so that you can find the book that you want. So after clicking that link and finding the book for your language, now we need a good grammar book.

You can maybe ask your tutors or maybe your friends, etc., but you need a good grammar book. You don't need to start from the beginning and do every single exercise whatsoever, but a good grammar book will help you throughout the journey. And like maybe you don't understand some part, you can look up to the book and do the exercises. Just do the exercises that you need so that you don't lose time.

So the third one is a phrase book. Phrase book definition is a small book containing helpful groups of sentences and words in a particular foreign language. So it really helps when it comes to learning a new language because when you usually look up to Google Translate or other translation platforms, the sentence itself is not wrong from the grammar perspective, but a native speaker would never say that sentence, right? So a phrase book will help you through these things.

I think a phrase book is very important, and for more native-like expressions, you can also watch YouTube videos in the target language so that you can know how to make a sentence in the target language. Okay, so the next one is a frequency dictionary. I wish I knew there was like a frequency dictionary because it really helps when you want to learn new words. You know which words are important, so you can start with those words and learn other words afterwards.

Okay, so the next one is a pronunciation guide. You can use online dictionaries. I wouldn't recommend Google translation that much because, like, you know, Google translation sounds a bit weird. So maybe look up to the online dictionaries that are other than Google Translate. Then the other book that we need for beginners is a thematic vocabulary book. So you don't need like 100 percent that, but I find it quite helpful.

For example, when it comes about medicine or about music, about sports, about vegetables and fruits, etc. It's like the book itself is very well categorized. I think words about something specialized wouldn't come that often, so having a thematic vocabulary book really helps about learning vocabularies about the topics that you're interested in. So I would recommend that. But you can also look up to Pinterest; they have quite a lot of thematic vocabulary galleries, which I was using when I was a beginner learning German. So you can use that as well, but having a book is, you know, easy because you need to have time to search on Pinterest. So I would recommend that.

And the last one for the beginners is a dictionary app, which I said you can use online dictionaries, but it's much easier when you have an app on your phone. I would recommend installing a dictionary app. Okay, so let's move to the intermediates. Unlike beginners, intermediates don't need that much because if you're intermediate, you have some sort of a base in that language, right?

So still, you need a grammar book. If you have a grammar book already, make sure that you love it and that you enjoy it and that you actually want to follow that grammar book. There are tons of grammar books, and some of them suck; some of them are very good and very well-structured. So make sure that you love your grammar book. If you don't love it, find a new one and buy it. I think it's totally worth it because if you don't like the grammar book that you have, you will get so easily bored of learning a language, and you'll like give up. So find a language book, find a grammar book that you love. That's very important. Don't be lazy; you're gonna find it, all right?

Another one that we need for intermediates is a phrase book. If you don't want to be like Google Translate, you need that book. I mean, you don't necessarily need that book, but it's good to have. You know, have that; buy that book. A phrase book; don't forget it. As well as beginners, I think it's also great for intermediates to have a frequency dictionary because it really helps with daily conversation. Sometimes you realize that, actually, you don't know the meaning of where you like frequently used vocabulary, so I think it really helps.

If you say that, “Okay, I know the most frequent thousand words; I don't need that,” then don't buy it. Though you don't know the thousand freaking words, I think it's good to have. And also, if you're trying to learn vocabulary, you can look in that dictionary and see how frequently people use that, so that maybe you can decide, “Should I really, really like try to learn that vocabulary, or I can learn it maybe the next time? This vocabulary will come up to me." You can decide in that way because there are so many words to learn and so many things to do. You don't want to lose your time on not really frequently coming vocabulary.

If you want to improve your language skills pretty fast, and lasting for intermediates is an online dictionary for pronunciation. As I said, pronunciation is very, very important for me. Personally, I think pronunciation is much more important than grammar, but we're gonna talk about that in another video. But for now, you know, use online apps, online dictionaries for your pronunciation or YouTube, Netflix, whatever because pronunciation is very important. Even though you're not really good at talking, your grammar sucks. If your pronunciation is good, everybody will think that you're good in that language.

So yeah, okay, so let's talk about the tutors and programs, online apps, services, whatever. Find the tutors, programs, online apps, online services for your target language. I will make another whole dedicated video about this, so today I'm not gonna talk about this much. But I will upload that video in a couple of days or a week or so, so stay tuned. There are tons and tons of apps, online sites that you can use from and choose from. I don't think that you'll have that much difficulty finding the one for you.

But if you want from me a suggestion, then wait for the upcoming video. So let's talk about the language classes, which is the last one. Because of the current situation around the whole world, it's really hard to go to any offline language classes. You can, of course, use online classes for improving your language skills; that's for sure. But I personally love really going to language classes and making friends and having like a proper conversation with the teacher.

But I think offline language classes are not a must. It really depends on your personality when it comes to language classes. If you are a person who raises their hand and says their opinion and actively goes to the classes, then I think language classes are 100 percent worth it. If you're a bit shy about raising your hands and stating your opinions and maybe not really talking during the classes, then maybe it's better for you to take online classes, like, you know, one-to-one.

But I am not shy at all, so I like to raise my hand, discuss with people, and do exercises with other people. So I think offline language classes are better for me. But it really depends on you, and decide what you like and what your personality is like, and then choose one.

So before finishing the video, let's summarize it. We have four steps. First step is choosing your language. Second one is choosing your books. Third one is finding tutors, programs, online apps, online services, whatever. And fourth one is finding language classes if you want.

Don't forget to check the description down below because I will link some very, very important stuff. So don't forget to check it out and find a language book. I think it will 100 percent help you. I will also link the book that I've read for this video, "Fluent Forever," down in the description below so you can also read it if you're interested in. I would highly, highly recommend the book; it shows a lot of scientific-based data about language learning.

So I would recommend that, and yeah, I guess that was it. I hope you enjoyed this video, and see you in my next video. Bye!