Speaker A
Why did English become the world's primary language anyway? English is a history of layers upon layers, conquests upon conquests.
English learning challenges and strategies with Arno Tali on overcoming speaking barriers and effective language immersion.
Key Takeaways
- Speaking practice is essential and often missing in traditional language education.
- Immersion in a language environment accelerates active language use and reduces hesitation.
- Digital platforms offer accessible opportunities for practicing English in real contexts.
- Familiar content like known movies can enhance language learning by connecting meaning and culture.
- A moderate vocabulary combined with active use is more effective than passive memorization.
What the video covers
- English became the world's primary language through historical layers and conquests.
- Traditional school methods lack sufficient speaking practice, causing hesitation in real-life communication.
- Exposure to language environments, including digital platforms like TikTok and YouTube, is crucial for active language use.
- Psychological barriers and lack of speaking habit can be overcome by immersion in the target language environment.
- Engaging with online communities by commenting in English helps practice active language use and builds confidence.
- Using familiar movies with English subtitles aids in understanding cultural nuances and language context.
- Children absorb language naturally like sponges, highlighting the importance of early and immersive exposure.
- A vocabulary of around 1,500 to 2,000 words, including internationalisms, is sufficient for functional communication.
- Practical language learning requires active expression rather than passive consumption.
- Effective language acquisition depends on motivation, immersion, and consistent practice beyond formal education.
Chapters
- 00:00Why English Became the World's Primary Language
- 03:30The Problem of Speaking Practice in Language Learning
- 06:54Using Movies and YouTube Effectively for Language Learning
- 10:18Children as Natural Language Learners
- 13:34Vocabulary Size and Language Functionality
- 20:05Overcoming Psychological Barriers to Speaking
- 26:43Practical Tips for Engaging with the Language Environment
- 33:20Summary and Blitz Round with Quick Questions
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Those who know English used to tell me, "Learn one word every day." Possessing a massive vocabulary alone won't make you omnipotent.
Speaker A
Alexey, you definitely need English. You need to enter the English-speaking market. Everyone's accent is beautiful, it's super, it's awesome.
Speaker A
Why is English often called the simplest language? Cringe is actually always a necessary stage of language learning. You really have to go through that every time.
Speaker A
Hello everyone, friends. This is Alexey Busov's podcast, and as usual, we're in balance, talking about health, psychology, and lately, we've been touching on politics. But, you know, to balance across the globe, we don't just need geopolitics, we also need such a
Speaker A
tool as linguistics, new languages that open up new worlds for us, right? And so we've invited a rather media-savvy specialist in the YouTube space, who teaches English in a very unconventional way. Now let's try to figure out how to make learning very
Speaker A
interesting. I'm sure many of our viewers have tried to start, attempted it, and then quit. So, let's try to figure out how to actually see this thing through to the end. Our guest today is Arno Tali. He is an English
Speaker A
teacher, translator, linguistics popularizer, founder of the Virginia Beowulf language school, if I'm pronouncing it correctly, and author of the YouTube channel of the same name about the English language, its history, grammar, pronunciation, and culture.
Speaker A
It's a very interesting channel, by the way, check it out, because I was even scrolling through the Reels. I liked the top three most interesting, unusual finds of people speaking a foreign language, where you originally taught, where there were these dark-skinned
Speaker A
people, and then you flipped the position. Arno, hello. Nice to see you, glad to meet you, thanks for the invite.
Speaker A
Hi there. Listen, I'd like to ask an original first question. Why do we spend almost 10 years learning English in school, and then can't even properly order a coffee abroad, freezing up immediately?
Speaker A
Damn, well, I disagree slightly there. We can order coffee, right? But if, for example, you need to say, "Hey dude, you need to go left, there'll be a hookah lounge, behind it a pawn shop, go down there and ask him." Right here,
Speaker A
yes, that's where problems might start to arise. Uh, there’s one answer, because, well, it depends on what we’ve been doing for 10 years in school. I think the main problem is obvious to everyone—it’s the lack of speaking practice; in school, we
Speaker A
don’t speak much, we just don't speak enough. Yeah. Even though it would seem that’s the main thing you need to do in class. Yeah. It’s been clear to everyone for like 100 years now, but it so happens that our curriculum is
Speaker A
imperfect in places, and everything still rests solely on the teacher’s enthusiasm. That is, everything relies not on the system, but on the teacher's dedication. Either at the university or in school. In other words, yes, you can shadowbox in front of a mirror for a
Speaker A
long time, but as soon as you step into the ring, they’ll show you exactly who you are. It’s the same with English. Unfortunately, we just don't speak enough.
Speaker A
I mean, look, my 10-year-old daughter has English every day at school for an hour a day. Well, out of 24 hours, every day, 5 days a week. Actually, that adds up to quite a few hours. Do we speak too little in class, or do we
Speaker A
speak too little in general? I don’t think her volume of, how should I put it, contact with the language is low, because she’s likely watching TikToks, she’s watching YouTube. But specifically the contact with a language environment—that is, explaining something to someone,
Speaker A
conveying your thought, well, simply entering into an act of communication, that might be what’s missing. At the same time, I don’t know your daughter's level. Most likely, things might be pretty good there, because their generation is really outperforming us in terms of success in
Speaker A
language learning as such. They just have more tools available to them. Regarding what they actually do in school, I can't vouch for that. It could be that they have an awesome teacher who drags them by the scruff of
Speaker A
the neck for all those 10 years and forces them to talk in pairs. I can't say for sure.
Speaker A
You know, unraveling this first question about ordering coffee, I see an observation. I mean, I’m a pretty outgoing guy, I host a podcast, but for my friends, for instance, their kids aren't as outgoing, perhaps due to their family culture. And they might
Speaker A
even know more, but they just can't bring themselves to speak, so how do you deal with that? Well, you know, there’s some kind of psychological barrier for children and people in general about speaking, a hesitation.
Speaker A
This lack of habit is cured, I think, by a week of being in the environment.
Speaker A
Everything they know, one way or another, they can put into active use in a short amount of time. If they truly studied something, if they have the vocabulary, if they understand how to build a sentence, how to structure a
Speaker A
phrase, basically how to get their point across, then it will turn out quite well. Just send them to Dagestan for 2-3 years and forget about them, as the saying goes. Only in this case, not to Dagestan, but to the country of the
Speaker A
target language. Arno, let’s do this. You’ve been teaching for 10 years. I’ve tried learning English myself three times, and there were a couple of really good attempts. But in the end, it all just fizzled out. And when I go
Speaker A
abroad, after a week, I’m back to using my thirty or fifty words again and getting by with those. How is it even possible to learn English if you live in Russia, never travel, and speak Russian? What is the fastest strategy
Speaker A
you would suggest? The fastest way is definitely to engage with the language environment as much as possible. Want to argue in the comments? The whole internet is there, please, go ahead and comment in English. The language only facilitates this
Speaker A
because the message usually conveyed by Reels or Shorts, or any short content, is extremely easy to understand, which is why they go viral. There are tons of people there who will agree with you and who will disagree with you. Try to
Speaker A
express your take on it, set a simple goal for yourself, and just get your voice heard by the global community a little bit. That is absolutely normal.
Speaker A
While you’re typing there, your tongue is literally moving in your mouth. You are there bit by bit, you’ll actually, yeah, your jaw will literally be moving while you’re typing. That’s how it works, essentially. There. So why not? A good
Speaker A
start. Yes, I remember. Plus, you have time, and you can type for as long as you want, yeah. You won’t be judged for being slow, or mixing up a word, and you can literally double-check. Well, that is literally a
Speaker A
good starting position. Listen, based on that, here’s a question: how can one properly use movies, series, or YouTube so they actually help with learning the language? I, for example, have tried, but I can't understand how to use them.
Speaker A
I watch, but it just doesn’t click, and with subtitles, one way or another, it's just not working. How do you see it, what strategy do you see to do this effectively?
Speaker A
All these years, I’ve only given one piece of advice. Uh, take your favorite movie that you already know by heart in Russian. Terminator, I don't know, Titanic, Avatar, whatever you like. Yes.
Speaker A
Brother, Brat, let it be Brat. Let it be Brat, yes. Well, watching it even with English subs is quite interesting, because you'll at least be curious how they translated the meaning. Brother, well, okay. Or the first Brother movie, it's filled with such
Speaker A
cultural nuances that you won't immediately figure out how to translate them into English. The translator has done the work for you. You can see what and nothing.
Speaker A
Well, it's better, of course, better, yes, a bit more native, I think. Uh, there are so many ma
Speaker A
Uh-huh. So, you still need to choose what you already know. I want to summarize that you already understand the meaning, but just in English. Uh, because you sort of know the phrases that will come up, and you just hear
Speaker A
them in a different context, right? Yes. Basically, the very mechanism that this isn't a punishment for you, it's not a job, it's not work for you, you just sat down to enjoy it, you just sat down to watch a favorite movie you saw
Speaker A
10 years ago. Thinking, why not refresh your memory, why not spend some quality time with the family. And so you sat down. Well, it's as if you already know everything they're going to say. But at the same time, you've also learned a
Speaker A
couple of new words for yourself. That's already a fairly low bar. That's what I usually advise everyone, if we're talking about movies, if we're talking about, I don't know, any video content, it's better to start with this .
Speaker A
Uh-huh. And how can YouTube be used in general? And is it possible to learn from YouTube, for example? Uh, back in the day, I was advised to watch some kids 'cartoons. Is this actually a working tool or not? Or does it need to
Speaker A
be done in a complex way? I think kids' cartoons are a different category. They are specifically for children, because, well, it's hard for me to imagine an adult who would watch content made for kids and not be bored.
Speaker A
Peppa Pig, for example. Okay, maybe, yes, they might watch a few episodes out of curiosity. It's a different matter with those Disney cartoons from the thirties, like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, yes, that's a good topic, you can watch them, especially since
Speaker A
they are acknowledged films. But again, it feels like we're slipping into the category of a film regarding the content itself. Children have an entirely different mechanism. Language acquisition in the first 10, or say 12 years of life, is a completely
Speaker A
different ballgame. They aren't learning the language at this time, they are acquiring it without any additional cognitive strain, provided they are in that environment. That is, in our case: if it’s a Russian-speaking child and they are constantly surrounded by
Speaker A
English-language cartoons, they aren’t learning the language from them, they are soaking it up, or more strictly speaking—they are acquiring it. This mechanism is called "language acquisition." That's pretty cool. So, a question for parents like me, for example: when we
Speaker A
go away for the winter for 2 months, say to Asia or Dubai, does it make sense to not just drag the child around hotels, but, for instance, put them in an English-speaking camp where everyone is already communicating in English, or
Speaker A
maybe a preschool for a month? Will a month give any results if a four-year-old stays in that environment , or is it pointless and they’ll just forget everything anyway? A month is a bit short, but it’s better than
Speaker A
nothing. That’s the first point, because, listen, kids are like sponges. Just imagine the volume of information a child needs to absorb in their first 5 years of life. They have to learn how to live, literally how to breathe, walk
Speaker A
, do everything in the world, pick things up. Just imagine mastering the mechanism of grabbing something with your hand. That is absolutely mind-blowing. Holding up their head so it doesn't flop. So much information, both subconscious and conscious, passes
Speaker A
through them every day that they just soak it all up like a sponge. We'll talk more about this, but yes, a month is naturally better than nothing. But if they return to English regularly after that month, that’s the ideal
Speaker A
scenario. If it was just one month and then nothing else, well, that's a bit worse, obviously. Again, better than nothing. So.
Speaker A
In general, the more you load a child with this kind of unobtrusive information—and it’s just a communicative act between kids, one said to the other, "Let's go play." The other said, "Look, I have a Spider-Man, check it out." Why not, right? It's
Speaker A
much easier for them. Contacts between them are usually much easier. So I’m all for it, of course.
Speaker A
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Tell me, please, to look back at that: is it even possible to reach a point where you stop—you know, like when I go abroad and start by thinking about what to say in Russian with my internal narrator, and
Speaker A
then I translate it? So, how did that go in English again? Can an adult actually switch to thinking in English so that they can speak immediately, or is that impossible at an adult age?
Speaker A
It’s not just possible, it’s the only possible path. Look, the thing is, in language lessons, that’s exactly what you learn: to express concepts, thoughts, and convey your message without translating—that is, directly from your head, using the ready-made set of tools, just building the thought
Speaker A
in that language. What does that look like? For example, if you were to say the phrase "My name is such and such," and you get stuck on the word "My," which isn’t even used in the English phrase in that way—it’s "I am,"
Speaker A
right? Then, well, you end up in a stupor, don't you? That’s not exactly what you want; you probably need to recall how that thought is formed from the very start. And so, bit by bit. But that comes through practice, naturally.
Speaker A
It’s not like you just use sheer willpower to stop translating. Naturally, it’s through repetition, naturally, through spaced recall. How is a word learned, for instance? To remember one word, you have to forget it properly a couple of times, and find
Speaker A
yourself in a situation where, damn, you forgot how it goes. Someone reminds you, or you check the dictionary, and after that, it’s better. That’s actually what the spaced repetition method is built on.
Speaker A
It’s the same with getting out of the habit of translating; obviously, even up to a C2 level, I don’t know, you won’t fully master the art of not translating, but in most cases, you should and will get by without it. That
Speaker A
is absolutely normal. There you go. Well, let me tell you how it is for me.
Speaker A
Okay, I’ve passed the C2 English exam , but sometimes I need to explain some super complex idea, and I get stuck on a word...no, I can't think of a complex Russian word right now, maybe " nonchalant," right, and I sit there
Speaker A
thinking: what is "nonchalant"? And that’s a screw-up. Naturally, that shouldn't happen. Yeah. I got it, I got it. So it turns out that if I start translating, I run into the fact that in other languages, not just English, I simply might not find
Speaker A
the right word, right? And that starts to hold you back in fast speech and forming your thoughts. And that’s actually what one should strive for in languages, is that correct?
Speaker A
Well, essentially yes, you just need to have a rough formula at hand for how that thought is expressed in one language versus another. I don't know, take English for example, look, in Russian if you go to order coffee, how
Speaker A
do you start? "Could I please have a coffee," or "Can I get..."? In English, you definitely wouldn't start with the word "can." You'd use "I'd like," for example; in Spanish, you'd start with " put for me, please," like "ponme por
Speaker A
favor," and so on. In all languages, it’s different. That's how it is. What? Even ordering coffee is different in every language?
Speaker A
Well, the formulas and the approach to it, yes. They're different. But the good news is probably that this is one of the most difficult initial steps.
Speaker A
After that, you start to get into the swing of things. I’d like to ask, how does a person know they are actually progressing if, subjectively, we often feel like we can't speak? How does one understand this, what are the markers?
Speaker A
If they’ve been studying for a year or two and notice that their speech rate has increased, they speak more on autopilot and don't struggle to remember a word or how to express a specific thought. Moreover, they start adding complex components on top of
Speaker A
that, relatively speaking, in different tenses. Exactly. Or they can express the same thought in different ways. If they have two ways to order coffee, for instance, then the progress is obvious.
Speaker A
Yes. I have two ways to order coffee. "I want a coffee." And just "Americano," you know, yeah. Yes.
Speaker A
Russians usually get by with a facial expression and charisma. And, yes, thanks to 1943 and the American invasion of Italy, we have the word "Americano," which is more or less understood all over the world. Although , by the way, not everywhere. In Poland
Speaker A
, I think they would understand " Americano," but they call it "kawa czarna," like black coffee. So it's not quite that global. Right. But nonetheless.
Speaker A
Americano. Not that global. Yeah. Didn't know that. Well, I used Poland as an example because, yes, the common ground there is the couchsurfing scene.
Speaker A
Though Americans will understand that, of course. Yes. Uh-huh. Yeah. Listen, an idea just came to me.
Speaker A
Many people say, well, my understanding is that those who know English told me: "Learn one word every day." Yeah, one word, and soon you'll know so many words, you'll start speaking. I tried doing that, but I'd already forgotten
Speaker A
the first word I learned. Anyway, the whole situation didn't work out. Is it even possible to learn that way? That's the first question. And the second question is, how many words do you actually need to learn to have a casual
Speaker A
, everyday conversation in English? Like, chatting, I don't know, meeting new people, finding out what they do, having some light conversations, you know, just living without any stress.
Speaker A
How many words? Uh. I'll give a rough estimate, because, um , I don't remember the vocabulary criteria for different levels. Uh, actually, that's a bit of a problem. I should probably find out at least roughly. But off the top of my head,
Speaker A
I'd say 2,000 words, 1,500 to 2,000 words. You have to realize that half of those words will be internationalisms anyway. I mean, like our Americanisms, for example, the word "table" or, say, the word "computer" or "laptop," you already know those. Right. And they
Speaker A
will be part of that set. Exactly. So things like pen, pencil, and so on, "in,""out," you already know all of that one way or another. And that is included in that set. But having a bank of words won't make you
Speaker A
omnipotent. Naturally, you'll always run into situations where someone asks, say, what's a wall outlet, for example, and you're like, "Oh," or a plug, or some kind of whisk. And you're like, " Damn it, really? Now this too?" As for
Speaker A
the "one word a day" strategy, man, I wouldn't do it. I think the trick to learning words that works, as empirically shown, is the interval method based on the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, where you learn a word, forget it a little, review it,
Speaker A
forget it a little, review it, and then you stop forgetting it. And for that, there exist, I don't know, probably for as long as the internet has, a ton of apps and programs that help you review those words at intervals. So, basically
Speaker A
, they throw a flashcard at you to check if you've forgotten the word or not. You answer honestly yes or no, and swipe it. There you go. And based on that, you eventually grasp the word.
Speaker A
Yeah. At the same time, there will be situations where you'll embarrass yourself in a real setting, saying the wrong word or mixing them up. It's okay , that's normal. That cringe factor is always a necessary stage of language
Speaker A
learning. You really have to go through that. I have an Iranian friend, and he was learning Russian, based on what I told him. Well, like you're saying now, he came here, he has a large network marketing company—not a pyramid
Speaker A
scheme, but a legitimate large MLM company, not MMM. He was holding a conference here, and he, the Iranian himself, got a little tripped up. He wanted to say: "We are not cowards, I am not a coward." And he got "coward"
Speaker A
mixed up with "panties." He confused the word for "coward" with "panties." So there he was, standing in front of everyone, saying: "I am not panties, I am not panties." And that was quite a intense moment. I was sitting in the
Speaker A
audience at that moment, and it was hilarious when he made that mistake. That's a very typical situation. What can you do? And everyone seems to understand. A native speaker will understand that you're just learning the language. They might have a laugh,
Speaker A
but they won't think you're a loser. Everything is fine. It’s just one of those things, yeah. It’s normal.
Speaker A
Why can two people study with the same teacher, and one makes progress while for the other, it’s like talking to a brick wall?
Speaker A
Everyone has different cognitive abilities. I mean, seriously, some people are sharper, others are a bit slower and just need more time.
Speaker A
That’s normal because a person we might think is slow in one area might be a genius in another. Language abilities differ slightly among people, especially in adulthood, when you have to master a language through practice and effort. This is an absolutely
Speaker A
normal topic. Moreover, they may have different habits. One does their homework constantly, while the other does it, well, once in a while. As for the languages I learn, I’d better not say; my teachers all know how I do my
Speaker A
homework. I do it, god willing, like once a month, unfortunately. Yeah. So And how many languages do you know now?
Speaker A
In an amateur context? Let's set a low bar. Yes. In university , I studied German. I got it to B1/B2 level more or less, but I'm testing my German right now. Like, I can read in it. I can handle B1 texts, but when it
Speaker A
comes to speaking—well, I'm in Germany about once a year, and it’s a total embarrassment, honestly. The basics, yeah, I can ask for a coffee, this way or that way, two cubes of sugar, just so I can see it. I can say
Speaker A
that, sure, but as soon as things get complex, issues arise. Next, I tried Norwegian, I got it to about A1 + level . I was just curious about what other Germanic languages are like. Then Turkish, I have a weak B1 in that. Well
Speaker A
, Turkish was practically meant for me. I was born in Uzbekistan, and, well, I like Turkic languages; they’re perfectly fine for me. It sounds great.
Speaker A
It even sounds a bit more elegant than Uzbek in some ways. So, there’s an affinity there. Uh, Spanish is A2/B1, around that level, but I’m working on it. I really need Spanish to be good.
Speaker A
And what else is left? Seems like English, well, I passed the C2 exam in English, right? Okay. That seems to be it. Russian is native, so that makes sense.
Speaker A
Got it, got it, got it. Here's a question for you. If you’ve already learned English, or just one language, does the third language come easier?
Speaker A
For example, let’s say I know Russian , I learned English, and then I take on Spanish. Does it come easier or not? Or is it back to square one? Look, you’ll have a better view of the map, like a football player seeing the pitch
Speaker A
; he’s on the grass level, but he can see the field—you’ll have a bit of a bird's-eye view. What categories do you need to learn? You think, "Well, there will likely be tenses, likely pronouns, and adjectives will probably
Speaker A
work like this.""And how do I form the plural from this?" All of that will be more understandable to you. Spanish is a bit more complex than English, I won't hide that, because the verb system is harder, especially with all
Speaker A
the exceptions and the many irregularities. It’s more elaborate in that regard, but it’s roughly in the same class of difficulty as English . Now, if you study Turkish after English, honestly, there isn't much help there. There won't be many
Speaker A
familiar categories, but overall you'll still think, "Okay, this is a noun, okay, this is an adjective.""I probably need to structure the sentence somehow, probably have to put things in a certain place." How do you say that?
Speaker A
You, well, you'll look for what's familiar, you'll try to sniff it out— how do I say this here?
Speaker A
Uh-huh. Well, I just, you know, I'm originally from the Chuvash Republic, and it just happened that in my childhood I lived there for a month at a time. Is that why I asked about children? A month at a time in the
Speaker A
village. And somehow the Chuvash language stuck with me anyway. Plus my mother, obviously, was always chatting on the phone back and forth, back and forth. So, the Turkic language...uh, once in a while, I'd go to Turkey later , and there are 20-30 words there that
Speaker A
are the same as in Chuvash, or Tatar. I also lived in Tatarstan for 12 years.
Speaker A
So that won't help with English, right? It will. It will help only if you studied a language directly, not just from a textbook, but let's say you purposefully and systematically took up learning a language as an adult, and
Speaker A
you roughly understand what pitfalls await you. In that case, it will help. As for Chuvash, I think you mostly encountered Tatar words in Turkey, because although Chuvash is Turkic, it's a unique language. It, well, to simplify, it split off from all the
Speaker A
other Turkic languages earlier than the others. I'm oversimplifying right now, but that is one of the hypotheses. And that's why it's very different. And for a while, scientists didn't even consider it a Turkic language. They were like, is this some kind of isolate
Speaker A
? So. But with Tatar, yeah, I understand there's likely some Chuvash-Tatar overlap there—well, not a creole, but still, using words from both. And so, you definitely could have encountered Tatar in Turkey. I mean, at least the numbers, right? Like "bir,
Speaker A
eki, uch," right? Yeah, there's similar pronunciation there. So, how do accents appear? Why is it so difficult for an adult to get rid of certain pronunciation features? Also, the older you get...When I came to Saint Petersburg from that same
Speaker A
Chuvashia, there was just...ugh, so much cringe back around the 2000s, the early 2000s; trolling people was just the norm. Yeah, I certainly got my fair share of it. Where does an accent come from? What do you do with it? How do
Speaker A
you get rid of it? Do you mean a Chuvash accent? Yes, I'm talking about my own accent, yes.
Speaker A
Well, in general, you had that Reel I watched, where you were talking to some Chinese guy—or was he British?
Speaker A
A Brit who was born in China, yes. who was born in China, and he speaks English, sort of, or rather in English, but with a Chinese accent. It's so amazing.
Speaker A
And this one, is he an American, right? He is an American. Or an American. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes . So, he was born there, he spoke Chinese, and he speaks his native, or at least ancestral language, which he
Speaker A
never really spoke, with an accent. What is the easiest way to work on an accent?
Speaker A
Well, let's break this down into categories. There’s no on-off switch here. Is it a native language or not?
Speaker A
There are many gradations. It is a big, big gradient. The case you're describing is a local dialect. Take me, I have a buddy from Chuvashia. I know how he talks. Sometimes a bit of an accent slips through. I hear it’s
Speaker A
slightly, well, maybe a bit Tatar, but it is so minimal. At the same time, look, the word "poshyol"(went), he doesn't say "poshol". Even so, he still says: "Poshyol." It’s heard literally in the intonation. It’s in some minor nuances. In short, he hears all the
Speaker A
phonemes of the Russian language perfectly. Like a native speaker. Everything is fine with that. This is not a non-native accent. This is a dialect specific to a certain region.
Speaker A
Every person’s dialect is beautiful, it’s super, it’s awesome, it’s interesting. But that’s my personal theory, if we talk about the case of that American, look, that American grew up, essentially, with a Chinese " firmware." He did have two languages in
Speaker A
the family, but the proportion of Chinese was so dominant that his American, well, okay, maybe it's native , but native to a lesser degree; as I said, there is a gradient. In his case, he didn't end up with two native
Speaker A
languages, but, well, one and a half. And that is why he speaks English in an American manner, but with a very strong Chinese accent that you can hear from a mile away. At the same time, in that same video, there was a Brit who spoke
Speaker A
both languages, Putonghua, I think it was Shanghai dialect, and British RP perfectly, as far as I can judge. And it was very beautiful and clear there.
Speaker A
Yes. Listen, based on the content you have on YouTube, is it easier to learn languages if you are interested in that nation’s culture, historical facts, philosophy, or literature? So, does being immersed in the cultural code itself give you more of a boost than
Speaker A
just rote memorization of the language? Oh, I think it depends on the person’s quirks, because you know how obsessive people can get; I mean, some people won't even leave the house, they'll just watch anime for hours.
Speaker A
That happens, and that's their business . It’s the same thing with languages. A person can get so hyper-fixated on a specific culture or country that they'll learn the language, the history , everything, and even start making plans to move there. Everything is in
Speaker A
different proportions, but usually, yes , if you aren't learning the language because you're forced to or out of necessity, but because you're genuinely interested in it, it generally helps because, one way or another, every time you engage with the history or culture,
Speaker A
you're going to run into the language. You read some geographical name, right, so you hop onto Wikipedia and think, " Man, I should probably check out the article in that language, too." Like, to see how they describe it. Look, for
Speaker A
example, Turkey and the Armenian Genocide. That’s such a bloody, brutal topic. So a person like me goes to check what the Turks themselves write about the Armenian Genocide on their own Wikipedia, for instance, right? Because, well, it’s still such
Speaker A
a super complex topic. And through that , you learn that, turns out, the Armenian Genocide in Turkish is called, I think, Ermeni Soykırımı. And you’re like, "Kırım means Crimea." So, Kırım in Turkish isn't just Crimea; it also means massacre. You're
Speaker A
like, "Wow, for Turks, Kırım sounds like massacre." So, those kinds of associations start to form. And little by little, yes, you learn new things, and naturally, that pushes you forward.
Speaker A
People often say that if we had a time machine and went back 100 years, we wouldn't understand half of what our ancestors in Tsarist Russia or the people of that time were saying. But in English, people would understand
Speaker A
themselves from 100 years ago. Listen, I wouldn't agree with the first part of that thought, because you can literally listen to recordings of Chaliapin, like, his actual speech.
Speaker A
Tolstoy’s recordings, Lenin’s speeches, uh, everything recorded, I don't know, from 1917 and earlier, yeah , the early 20th century, you’ll understand 100%. Sure, there might be some term they use, like "polushka" or maybe "altyn," and you'd be like, "Wait
Speaker A
, how much is an altyn?" What about a grivennik? "Realities, in short, of the time. But otherwise, well, you’ll understand absolutely everything. You just open up Dostoevsky. You understand 99.9%of everything written there.
Speaker A
It’s the same thing. Phonetics, pronunciation, and articulation in general haven’t changed enough to hinder understanding. You would understand Dostoevsky perfectly. If you and Pushkin went out to hang out on a Friday night, within half an hour you’d be best buds. It’d be fine.
Speaker A
There wouldn't be any issues with mutual understanding. Aside from the fact that you’d need to explain what a phone or the internet is, and so on, some of the new inventions. Yes, realities, yes, the realities. You would need to learn the realities of
Speaker A
his time a bit more deeply. He’d need to learn yours, but regarding words and phrases—understanding what he wants from you—you’ve got that covered at 120%. Uh, it’s the same with English.
Speaker A
There’s an even larger archive of video and audio of how people spoke 100 years ago. There are recordings of people. In one of my videos, there were recordings of people who were born...Uh , anyway, they were still alive at the
Speaker A
same time as Napoleon’s contemporaries, I think. Just like that . Uh, well, they were a generation or a few generations younger, but they did overlap—Napoleon’s peers and them.
Speaker A
And there’s this old woman there who, I don’t know, was born deep in the 19th century. And she’s giving an interview in England, I think in the sixties. Naturally, you can hear a difference in the speech. Instead of
Speaker A
that English 'r', she rolls her 'r's like this. So for Paris, she doesn't say" Paris, "she says something more like" Parris. "But honestly, that doesn't hinder understanding at all.
Speaker A
It’s fine. 100 years back, you’ll understand everything, there will be no problems. Naturally, they will notice you speak a bit strangely. Your style is completely different, but even 30 years ago, they would spot that too. Uh , trouble with understanding English
Speaker A
starts around here. That’s where you’ll start noticing it, yeah. You won't catch certain words. Uh, how do we know this? Take Shakespeare's rhymes, for instance; they don't rhyme everywhere now, because if you read them today, the pronunciation has
Speaker A
shifted. The reason I thought of Shakespeare is that nobody can quite nail his original intonation. Listen, why are English words often spelled so differently from how they are pronounced? Why do they make it so complicated?
Speaker A
Well, it wasn't exactly intentional. I think it's mostly due to pure carelessness. Let me explain why.
Speaker A
Because English—well, it's not a unique situation, but it's a very striking example of a language that is literally, as they say, a Frankenstein language, pieced together. English is a history of layers upon layers, and conquests upon conquests. The
Speaker A
Anglo-Saxons came, then the Vikings came on top and threw their own words into the mix—the word" they, "for example, is from the Vikings. Then the Normans arrived, adding a ton of French vocabulary, and during the Renaissance, scientific Latin terms were added, for
Speaker A
instance. Later, a fashion for all things French took over, and so on and so forth. Plus, English is polycentric.
Speaker A
It’s used in every corner of the world, right? There’s America, there’s Australia. There hasn't been a language reform; no centralized reform of English spelling was ever carried out. Meaning there is no single body like an English Language Academy. One that would say," We're
Speaker A
writing like idiots, let's change something already. "That never happened . A bunch of initiatives were proposed.
Speaker A
People suggested it, but there was never an actual overhaul of spelling, except—well, there’s a picture hanging there—there was this guy, Noah Webster in America. He suggested simplifying the spelling just a little bit. And that’s why, as you probably
Speaker A
know, in American English, instead of" colour, "we write" color. "He just adjusted a few things like that because he thought," Let’s bring a little logic into our words, and have letters at least mean something reasonable. " But otherwise, no. Plus, you have to
Speaker A
understand, English uses the Latin alphabet. And the Latin script allows for absorbing tons of words from different languages without changing their spelling, like" résumé, "for example, from French, right with that accent mark, so it’s spelled that way but read according to French rules."
Speaker A
Café, "right, the word for a coffee shop. Anything else, right? What else comes to mind? Uh...
Speaker A
Darn it, the word" gauge, "like for a measurement, it’s spelled G-A-U-G-E. Why on earth is it pronounced as" gage "? Nevertheless, yes, a ton of this superficial layer that has been covering the English language throughout its history, unfortunately,
Speaker A
was never cleared away or tidied up, unlike in many other languages. Plus, you have to understand that the English written tradition is quite old. It goes back to the 800s. Not the 1800s, but the 800s. Yeah. And back then, well,
Speaker A
every scribe wrote however they felt like it. There are books, there's the Ormulum, or Ormulum, I'm afraid to mispronounce it. The experts will correct me in the comments if anything.
Speaker A
Where a person literally wrote down what they heard. Which, by the way, really helped us later to understand how English was pronounced back then.
Speaker A
Yeah. And that was long ago. There is a famous example of the words for daughter and sister, which were spelled in twenty different ways across different parts of England. They were spelled every which way; eventually," sister "and" daughter "became standard,
Speaker A
but there is still no single principle. So, what do we have? In short, in English, a letter doesn't mean much; the word itself means something. That is, English is essentially a hieroglyphic writing system. Each word is literally a hieroglyph you have to
Speaker A
memorize because you might run into a word like" corps, "which is spelled" corps "but pronounced" core, "and well, here we go.
Speaker A
Uh-huh. In Russian, there were reforms. We got rid of the yat, got rid of the hard signs at the end that didn't mean anything anymore. Izhitsa, fita, in Russian they brought a bit more order to things in that regard. Yeah.
Speaker A
But if you look at the Russian language , it isn't as easy to read as you might think, because in the word" les "( forest), the letter' e 'is read as' eh ', but in" yel "(spruce), the letter' e
Speaker A
'is read as' ye 'with a yod at the beginning. So, learning to read Russian also requires a bit of effort. Plus words like" solntse "(sun) or" zdravstvuyte "(hello).
Speaker A
Well, yeah, yeah, we have those too. And how closely related are Russian and English anyway? Is the relationship noticeable anywhere? Well, clearly or not?
Speaker A
It is definitely clearly noticeable. The word" mat "(mother) is" mother, "" doch "(daughter) is" daughter. "The word" drevo "(tree) is" tree. "The word " dver "(door) is" door. "The word" mysh "(mouse) is" mouse. "The word" solntse "(sun) is" sun. "So, in all
Speaker A
those basic words that, for example, were relevant to people thousands of years ago, they are still recognizable.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yes, some shifted, and you Yes, yes. Both English and Russian converge to a common ancestor in the distant past. There is no exact chronology and it’s always debated, but let's say 5,000 years ago. That was the large body of dialects and
Speaker A
vernaculars usually called Proto-Indo-European. It existed in Eastern Europe. In those steppe regions : Ukraine, Russia, Belarus.
Speaker A
Specifically, Slavic languages later formed, branched off, and began to develop their core in the region of Poland. Germanic languages, to which English belongs, were in the region of Denmark. Right. Well, every group went its own way.
Speaker A
Uh-huh. And what are some errors? Uh, well, what do you think? Do native speakers do things so often that it becomes the norm in their daily usage?
Speaker A
Uh, listen. It happens. What is an error? One must understand that language is...a speaker said it, and as they see it, they said not" nadet "but" odet. "Like," he put on [odet] a coat.
Speaker A
" And, damn, 50%of speakers will say:" He put on a coat. "Is that still considered an error? Or can we accept that it’s a variant of the norm, not literary, but colloquial, so we can stop stifling people over it? If people
Speaker A
speak that way, if it sounds natural to them, if they are 100%native speakers, then it’s not such an error, right?
Speaker A
It just doesn’t match what’s accepted in writing. Right. But language is diverse; there are different layers of language. On one level it's fine, on another level, well , it’s better to correct it.
Speaker A
That’s why, yes, it depends on what you consider an error. Right. And there are plenty of such spots in the Russian language. In the written Russian language, for example, the"-tsya "vs"- t'sya "ending is a constant struggle for people. Well, it's hard for
Speaker A
everyone because they are pronounced exactly the same. Right. And not everyone finds it easy to grasp the logic of where to put the soft sign and where not to. Once, damn, yeah, yeah, yeah. Russian is a complex language; it's much harder than English
Speaker A
in terms of the number of categories. So, why deny it? By the way, we can move on to why English became the main language in the world. Right, uh, not some other language, but specifically English.
Speaker A
What do you think? Three reasons, I think. First, the States. And the results of World War II . And plus, there's US immigration and their immigration policy, which, man, throughout the entire 19th century— well, okay, the second half of the 19th
Speaker A
and the first half of the 20 th—just think of how many people they accepted who were looking for a better life and wanted to do something. And at the same time, a more or less favorable environment for this had been created.
Speaker A
The scientific, technical, and economic base of the States grew so sharply that the world became Anglocentric for that reason alone. Second, the British Empire. Also its entire history and all its claims to, how should I put it, to
Speaker A
I forgot the fancy word, in short, to dominance. Let's just say to world supremacy. One way or another, that also played a role. Third, English is easy to learn. One way or another.
Speaker A
Fourth, IT technologies are still all Anglocentric. There. Uh, well, that's just off the top of my head. I think that might be it, but the main thing, I think, is the outcome of the Second World War. I think that had the biggest
Speaker A
impact, the fact that America emerged as an absolute winner with what seemed to be minimal casualties, as far as was possible in that meat grinder. There.
Speaker A
And that pulled them out of the depression, including the Great Depression, I mean as an economic crisis. And so, here we are.
Speaker A
Why is English often called the simplest language? For some reason, it doesn't seem that simple to me. I'm trying to figure out where it's actually true and where it's a myth, maybe there are places where it's difficult.
Speaker A
The truth, I think, is that, how should I say it, in short, the grammatical categories you need to learn, like verb pluralization, cases, and so on, compared to Slavic languages—the most difficult ones that come to mind, like Polish, Russian, Ukrainian—there's a
Speaker A
minimum of that. You don't really need to learn cases; you literally have two or three examples of cases, like he— him, and that's it. That's all. Well, like, cases end right there.
Speaker A
Furthermore, you don't need to learn different forms for" table "to" to the table. "It will always be" table. "You don't need to change it at all. Also, you don't need to conjugate verbs by person. Like" I go, "" he went, "and so
Speaker A
on. In English, that's minimized as much as possible. Yes, there are irregular verbs, you can get a little tripped up. It's kind of a hello from the past, but otherwise, it requires minimal effort from you. And the fact
Speaker A
that learning it might be difficult, everyone has different reasons for that . Well, like, look, as I said, with Norwegian, I gnawed on it a bit, gnawed on it, and that was that. There just wasn't any necessity, or rather, there
Speaker A
was little contact, things happen. Nothing terrible, I think. Uh, the moment you realize the absolute necessity, like," I need to enter the English-speaking market right now. " That's the moment your progress will really take off.
Speaker A
Yeah. My English teacher, a young girl, she says:" Damn, Alexey, you definitely need English, you need to enter the English-speaking market, well, international markets. "I thought about it, thought it over, and that was it, it just faded away.
Speaker A
In English, many are afraid of mixing up tenses, but in business, they sometimes overlook errors that cost hundreds of thousands of rubles.
Speaker A
Suppose you're a tutor, you built a site, added a sign-up form, a person left their name and phone number, and you're already processing personal data and are liable under Federal Law 152.
Speaker A
This applies to any business that collects data on clients or employees. You'll say:" But I have a checkbox and a policy on the site. "A checkbox without consent text doesn't solve the issue. And a copied fairy-tale policy might not correspond to how you
Speaker A
actually work. The fine for a company for lacking written consent when it's required is from 300 to 700,000 rubles.
Speaker A
Violations on a site can be detected without your involvement, and the personal data service helps you deal with these risks. A free check based on over ten parameters, no registration needed, with results appearing immediately on the screen. Paid checks
Speaker A
cover over 50 indicators, document analysis, and verification against the Roskomnadzor registry. You receive a concrete report with violations and links to the law. If necessary, the service will prepare documents for your company in 2-5 business days, based on
Speaker A
what data you collect, why, and whom you share it with. You only pay for what's necessary. Using the link in the description, a free check is available for my followers. See what it finds.
Speaker A
Even without a purchase, you'll find out what problems have been detected on your site. Uh, which languages, well, theoretically, could compete with English for world dominance? Is there any language right now that could, you know, provide some sort of competition?
Speaker A
Well, what are your guesses? It's just something I've been turning over in my mind.
Speaker A
Go ahead. I have one assumption. It's not languages that can compete, but technologies that will simply make everything so easy that, you know, we'll understand each other instantly.
Speaker A
Meaning, while still using our existing languages. Perhaps this technology will level the playing field, and that very divine decision to divide people by language will, well, be dismantled; we will defeat it, so to speak, and everyone will again, well, communicate
Speaker A
in one language. But it will just be, look, it will be varied, yet so smoothed out that, in essence, it will be a single language—the language of technology, which allowed us to communicate without obstacles. That is the only language I am competing with.
Speaker A
This is an inevitable stage. We are probably closer to this now than, well, than ever before, obviously, yes. But there are always questions, like, how do you communicate in a noisy bar; how would your Neuralink recognize speech there? How to communicate on a noisy
Speaker A
street, what to do about culture, because culture is always embodied in the form of language, like songs—are we going to translate those? Like, how do you listen to a song, and all that.
Speaker A
I mean, it's not just a communicative act per se. I spoke, and you understood me. It's also a ton of context. It's also a bunch of inside jokes, anecdotes , like how we can exchange a meme among ourselves. And that meme is locked
Speaker A
within the CIS environment. It will be understood there in Belarus, in Kazakhstan, for example. In America, they won't understand it. Well, why?
Speaker A
Because they simply don't live there. They don't know our apartment blocks or kiosks or anything like that. And that's it. Yes, the problem of understanding will be solved on a basic level, but as for the cross-pollination of language cultures, who knows how
Speaker A
that will go; we'll have to see. Plus, a very powerful recognition mechanism is needed. I mean, literally a Neuralink that works without delay, giving it to you instantly. Well, I think some form of human cyborgization will be needed, for sure. As for
Speaker A
language itself, if we are still talking in terms of language, yes, damn, no to Chinese, let me explain, because, damn, well, all of Chinese IT is still built on the same underlying technologies anyway. That's the first point. So. In short, as long as the
Speaker A
world remains Anglocentric in the fields of IT, engineering, and the scientific-technical base, as long as all journals are stamped and dissertations are defended in English.
Speaker A
Until that time, English, most likely, will remain the hegemon. As for the rest, Hindi likely doesn't stand a chance because it directly competes with English within India. They have their own version, after all. Chinese, again, way too many people; I mean,
Speaker A
what, one and a half billion speakers, relatively speaking, and it’s also fragmented. I mean, which version of Chinese, right? And it’s difficult to learn as an adult because you need a musical ear. Well, a certain level of musical ear to catch the tones.
Speaker A
Musical ear—you speak Chinese, go into music. Well, there’s this famous urban legend, I don't know how true it is, I haven't really looked into it.
Speaker A
That a very large number of Chinese speakers possess absolute perfect pitch . What's the point? Like, someone tells you," Hit the note A. "And they go," A.
Speaker A
"And they hit it. Exactly. You can check on a keyboard, and they’ve hit it. So they always have a musical scale in their head.
Speaker A
Explained that very simply. But, in short, that absolute pitch, yeah. That’s new to me. I had no idea.
Speaker A
Listen, let’s move on to a couple of professional questions then. How can a person tell from the very first lesson that they have a good English teacher in front of them?
Speaker A
They won't bore you with the alphabet and will likely know what to give you that’s relevant. And to be relevant, they’ll probably try to help you build your first phrases:" I am so-and-so, I work as this. "Or just," I
Speaker A
am a boy, I am a girl, I am a man, I live here or there. "And try to ask you some simple questions so you can answer them.
Speaker A
So, if you get straight to communicating and you get a feel for what it's like to speak the language, that’s probably a very rational teacher who knows how to guide you via the shortest route. That’s not the only method, of course. There are other
Speaker A
approaches that are also valid. But in my opinion, if a person immediately immerses you in the need to express your own thought, then you’re definitely on the right track, and they know what you need. But again, it depends on your goals. If you
Speaker A
came to them not as a beginner, but at a B2 level, for example, and you say," I need to improve my writing, " naturally you’ll start with something else. There you go.
Speaker A
I’ve had various teachers, I even tried Zoom, looked here, looked there. And there are teachers who, as you say, need to help someone write an essay.
Speaker A
And this teacher is tuned into language preparation, preparing for some kind of exams, you know. And that’s basically how they think. There are teachers who think at the level of, I don’t know, kids' prep, and there’s the level
Speaker A
where they definitely know a person has come to them who wants to go abroad and start speaking. So there’s some kind of professional deformation there.
Speaker A
Could it really be that way? That one teacher is already professionally deformed and is simply geared toward a different goal, and based on that, they just don't fit your needs?
Speaker A
Listen, the barrier to entry for the teaching profession is so low, it has remained the same all these years, where all it takes is knowing the language.
Speaker A
And you sort of just trust them, thinking," Well, you’ll probably teach me something. "Yeah. Though no, it’s certainly better to be selective , yes. Usually, a teacher has a set of specializations. And they’re like," I’m good at preparing for this or
Speaker A
that exam. I develop speaking skills, I’ll boost your level. "Usually, it comes in a little bundle like that. But if they also take on kids and everything else, well, you think they're a bit too—not exactly ambivalent—they're too much of a
Speaker A
jack-of-all-trades. I would still look for the specific specialization that you need. Yeah. And, naturally, look at the reviews. From the first lesson, as a rule, you can tell if you actually learned something new in the direction you want to move, well, like writing,
Speaker A
or passing an exam. If you did some practice exam tasks together and you’re like," Well, it seems to be working out. "At the same time, you aren't feeling demotivated. Meaning you feel that, well, it’s within your reach, then most likely you’ve found
Speaker A
a good fit. That’s a good teacher. Uh-huh. How do you tell if the problem is the teacher's methodology and not that you don't have the knowledge, like , you're not capable? Uh, if the problem is the methodology, I think,
Speaker A
you’re just sitting there translating phrases from a textbook, but that, most likely, doesn't cut it at all.
Speaker A
Sometimes you can practice sentence structure in different tenses this way, but if most of your lesson is based on translation, then you are learning in the 19th century. Or, well, you're learning in the 20th century. But, most likely, you want to start speaking the
Speaker A
language. You don't just want to, like, dabble in it. You want to speak it. If instead of a live conversation, you are spending most of your time translating, something is going wrong.
Speaker A
Mhm. Mhm. What is the actual difference in training? I know from my own daughter, we studied under the IB system, where they brought in teachers from Britain, well, like, native speakers. And what is the difference when a person learned it themselves and
Speaker A
is now teaching it? Do you mean when a teacher is a native speaker versus a non-native speaker?
Speaker A
Yes. Yes. Yes. Two projects like that. Which one would be more interesting, better, more effective?
Speaker A
Damn, as I said, the barrier to entry for the teaching profession is, unfortunately, so low that even a guy who was literally working as an engineer or a plumber just yesterday gets into the category of teachers, and he's like," Well, I know the language,
Speaker A
I'll probably teach something. "And you realize that this lesson, damn, he just can't explain this rule. He absorbed it in childhood, it was, like, internalized automatically, and he will always apply it correctly, but he can't explain why. He won't even help you
Speaker A
remember why it's like that. He won't give you a principle to distinguish between them. He's like," Well, I just know that's how it's said. "And very often, I think many will confirm in the comments, many lessons with native
Speaker A
speakers go exactly like that, where he's like," Well, that's just how it has to be. "There you go. And that's where his value ends. A native-speaking teacher is most likely needed for something else in this case, just so
Speaker A
you are in an environment where you can talk to a native speaker. That is valuable, yes, but it's not quite a teaching activity, it's more of a conversation club. At the same time, naturally, there are many certified native teachers who know their stuff.
Speaker A
Moreover, they have experience working with students from different language groups. This one teaches Chinese students and knows where they face difficulties. This one teaches Russians or, I don't know, Poles, well, in general, Slavs, right. This one for Uzbeks, for example. He knows what
Speaker A
their difficulties are, what projections from their native language might hinder them during learning. In that case, yeah, no doubt about it, that’s a pro. As for non-native teachers, it all depends on their conscientiousness and their qualifications. A good principle to
Speaker A
look at is how the teacher balances memorizing rules, practicing them, and using them in real conversation.
Speaker A
Suppose they show you the principle and say:" Look, man, let’s keep it simple . Don't worry about the exceptions for now; let's just try building a sentence like this. "" Here we go. "" I’ll ask you some questions, and we’ll go a
Speaker A
bit deeper, maybe wander off-topic a little bit during the talk. "That is absolutely normal. But if they start hitting you with every possible exception right away, or diving deep into obscure rules, you have to realize that for a student who doesn't really
Speaker A
get it yet, that can be demotivating. That’s the teacher’s curse of knowledge, of course—it’s more of a pedagogical flaw.
Speaker A
Uh-huh. Meaning, it’s obvious to them , but they don't realize they’re overloading the person they're teaching .
Speaker A
They usually do it with good intentions . They want to show everything in advance, but as a rule, it’s better not to show everything at once. I mean, provide about 10%of the material that’s understandable, so the person can take that step up and gradually
Speaker A
move forward. Uh-huh. Which popular language learning methods are overrated right now? I mean , there are many different methods out there. Is Duolingo, for example, overrated or not?
Speaker A
Duolingo is more of a language amusement park, aimed at getting you acquainted with a language. Yeah. And you have to understand that the specific goal of Duolingo is probably not for you to become fluent—it lacks the tools for that—but to see if you
Speaker A
even like the language. Right. Moreover , all the UX, UI, and mechanics are designed to keep you spending as much time in the app as possible. Yeah, naturally, I’m not saying they’re working dishonestly. I’m saying that it’s more of a side track from actual
Speaker A
language acquisition. Right. And even though it’s fun, and even though there are tons of examples—like, I don’t know," I am eating a dead horse wrapped in its own skeleton "or whatever. It’s constantly stuff like that. Despite that, learning a language
Speaker A
there progresses more slowly than you could with a live person. Uh-huh. So, for maintenance, perhaps, yes, more for your memory, like, as a drill tool.
Speaker A
And the drill tool, yes, it has, as far as I know, a mechanism for memorizing words using flashcards, spaced repetition. Yeah. Moreover, it can be convenient for learning unusual writing systems, for example, Chinese, Japanese , or Arabic scripts. Yeah. But in my
Speaker A
opinion, I tried learning Arabic script with it, and it seemed slow to me. You could move a bit faster. Yeah. So, it’s not always customized enough.
Speaker A
That kind of thing exists there. Yes. Yes. But it’s a cool product. I just don’t think it’s the best language learning method. It’s better, naturally, when you need to work in that language. As they say, anywhere in the world, say in Mexico, you will
Speaker A
always find a Chinese person in a Chinese shop who speaks Spanish as fluently as a native. That is the best method. Yeah. But nevertheless, yes, it should be combined with lessons.
Speaker A
From what age and in what way should one introduce a child to a language? I think from the moment they start talking in general, that is, when they begin to say their first words in their native language, the family language—
Speaker A
mama, papa. In that case, there’s no harm in showing them English cartoons as well. That’s absolutely normal.
Speaker A
The brain is so plastic at that age—I don’t know, those synaptic connections, forgive me, neurobiologists, if I’m using the terminology incorrectly—they are so flexible, and the child is capable of absorbing skills like a sponge, so it’s best not to neglect those years.
Speaker A
Okay. Well, if they don’t become bilingual, it’s no big deal; they will just have more contact with English in childhood. It is very likely their pronunciation will be better, because accent in adulthood depends not only on how you can speak, but on how
Speaker A
you hear. We literally hear differently when we are small. Yeah. And we build a different system inside our heads, including a phonetic one. Therefore, hearing it—the more often, the better . That is an absolutely correct strategy. Anyway, at what age does a
Speaker A
child start talking roughly? Well, at a year, roughly, a year and a half, they start to connect things into sentences, like," give, "I don't know," give me a pillow "or something. That’s all. Yes , from that moment, you can turn on
Speaker A
cartoons. Nothing bad will happen. Just so that it’s there, at least. It’s flexible, right? It is flexible.
Speaker A
It carries two systems at once, so it’s no big deal. In the world, I think—I’m afraid of being wrong— 50%of people are bilingual, they have two native languages. There you go.
Speaker A
Because there are a ton of places, like , well, Africa for example, or India, where languages just all overlap like that.
Speaker A
Well, like in my case, for example. I was born in Chuvashia and learned the Chuvash language in my childhood, yes.
Speaker A
I haven’t spoken it for 20 years, but if I go there, bam-bam-bam, I’ll be speaking it in a week.
Speaker A
Naturally. Ano, thank you. We’ve moved on to the blitz round. Let’s keep it quick and clear. Five questions—you know, not long-winded, just a couple of sentences . Deal? Let’s give it a try.
Speaker A
The most useless way to learn words. In my view, it’s learning one word a day. Let me explain why. Because you’ll forget it. In second place, I’d say it’s memorizing words by category, like when you decide to learn
Speaker A
all the plants. Like, why, man? You only need one plant, like dill at the grocery store, and that’s it. The rest will come later. It’s better to learn words from different categories that you need every day. That’s much
Speaker A
more productive, I believe. Cool. One habit that most hinders language learning. Well, I think it’s the habit of translating. Yes, definitely the habit of translating in your mind: first building a sentence in your native language, in our case Russian, and
Speaker A
trying to drag it into English word for word. Yes, unfortunately, you need to get rid of that. You have to understand that languages, syntax just works differently in them. They were simply formed differently. You have to accept that, you have to try to grasp as early
Speaker A
as possible how things are built there. And automatically try to dive straight into that structure.
Speaker A
Uh-huh. Which English word do Russians mispronounce most often? Let me think, damn. Okay. Let’s make it the word for" iron. "We have the famous band Iron Maiden, which is, I don’t know, one of the top metal bands. It’s not" eye-ron, "it’s"
Speaker A
iern. "That is, in the British version, the" r "isn't pronounced at all, it's just" iern. "There. In American, it will be" irn. "Well okay, not" earn, " but" irn. "Like" earn "as in money.
Speaker A
That’s how the word should be pronounced. There. And for us, yes, in Yes, for us it’s" iron "because that’s how it’s written. And the word for a flat iron, accordingly, is also not" iron "but" irn. "That's the first thing that came to mind, I think.
Speaker A
And words like" again, "well, and so on , but that's not exactly a mistake.
Speaker A
Well, yeah, usually you should say" again "without that extra sound, but we say" again, "it's just written that way . Well, that's normal.
Speaker A
That's cool. What's the most beautiful English word, in your opinion? Let me check my little list of words.
Speaker A
Uh-huh, sure. Okay. A word I learned relatively recently, I'm afraid of butchering the pronunciation, but I think it translates to...We'll put it on the graphic, I'll send you how it's spelled . Wassail is a carol tradition after Christmas in England, in Britain, in
Speaker A
some regions, when they bless the apple trees and all that. It's spelled W-A-S-S-A-I-L. There. And it's also a Christmas drink, kind of like an English mulled wine. That's why I like this word, because it comes from Old English. Well, it was considered" be
Speaker A
well "in Old English. So, this specific drink could be translated as something like" good health "or something similar . Why this particular word? Because it is distinctly English. It has no French influence, nothing at all. It's purely English-English that has made it to our
Speaker A
days. That's cool. Cool. Awesome. And what language would you personally like to know perfectly? If you were asked right now, which one?
Speaker A
Well, if you think rationally, I would definitely want some Latin American version of Spanish, I don't know, maybe where it's spoken the most. Purely because more people speak it. Yeah. Or maybe Chinese, but I don't know a thing
Speaker A
about Chinese at all. I haven't even started learning it. Yeah. If it's just by preference, then definitely Turkish, because I like Turkic languages and I like how Turkish sounds. It's the most, it sounds like the most elegant one,
Speaker A
you know, it's like listening to them, as if they are in robes or something.
Speaker A
So that's why. If you want, you can answer this question too. What language , besides English, would you like to know?
Speaker A
Oh, listen, besides English, I'd like to learn English first. But as for, well, besides, yeah. And so, I lived in Argentina. So, Latin, Spanish, I really wanted to learn. I could babble a little bit there, but that was 2 years ago. Back
Speaker A
then, maybe I knew 30 words, now I've forgotten them. 30-40, just enough to order coffee and something else. Yeah, I've even forgotten those now. That one is probably also Latin. And it's interesting to think about something like Arabic. If I were to choose for
Speaker A
business, for a business context, I would ideally love to know Chinese. If I knew Chinese perfectly right now, it would probably be easier to do business with those guys. Yeah, yeah, purely rationally, yes, Chinese is better, because, well, how many opportunities
Speaker A
open up for you immediately, if you know Chinese at a level close to a native speaker, it’s hard, but it’s a total dream. As for Argentine Spanish, man, it’s one of the coolest types of Spanish, I think, with that
Speaker A
Italian intonation. First of all, and second, the fact that instead of the" y "sound, they have" sh, "like" poshashe-va, "all that" sh "stuff sounds amazing. So yeah, Argentine Spanish, that’s really it.
Speaker A
Cool. Arno, thank you very much. I was really glad to meet you today. Yeah, I think the viewers will find it interesting too. So, au revoir.
Speaker A
Yes, au revoir. Don’t forget to leave your comments and clarifications, because I tried to explain my perspective as simply as I could, without trying to step into someone else's area of expertise. So don't be shy, correct me, criticize me, I’ll
Speaker A
be glad to see your comments. I will try to read and reply to everything.
Speaker A
Alright, thanks for having me. Yes, let's keep in touch.
Topics:English learninglanguage immersionspeaking practicelanguage barriersEnglish educationlanguage acquisitionArno TaliDuolingolearning strategieslanguage environment
