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my challenge was nothing less than
achieving a good communication level of
a new language within six weeks for most
people this would require years of time
it is important that I started out with
no knowledge of the language had no
Spanish speakers around me
and I spent only my free time on the
studies at the end of my six weeks
challenge I had a couple of conversation
with native Spanish speakers and I asked
them when do they think I started
learning Spanish una más de dos años más
de dos anos dos anos três anos Prasanna
mini Moses Mrs S Luna experimenta con
español para me for care and desert
after ended espanol si seis Samanas
Mysterio
say Samanas and Syria most of them were
really surprised when I told them that I
started only six weeks ago or some of
them didn't even believe what I said but
thought it out keep pressure
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I posted this same video on my Hungarian
channel and in a year it reached almost
80 thousand views and I'm getting lot of
very good feedback to this video so I
decided to shoot this video in English
too because it could be very useful for
you in this video I would like to show
you how it was possible for me to reach
a Spanish level that people thought that
I had been learning Spanish for years
although it was just six weeks we gonna
see what techniques and what strategies
I used for Spanish learning I think that
it will be very useful for you
especially if you are just beginning
with Spanish but I think it's not only
true for Spanish but also for any new
languages I'm gonna talk a little bit
about my language learning experiences I
will also talk about some other factors
that I think were very important in this
Spanish learning experience because it's
not just how you learn Spanish but also
how you approach learning itself I think
it's also very important and at the end
of this video you will see some
conversations that I had with Spanish
speakers
my name is Gabor I am from Hungary and
in the very beginning of this video I
would like to mention that please don't
judge this video based on my English
level although this video is about
language learning I didn't use these
techniques when I was learning English
in school and when you are a child you
get what you get it's you have not much
control about it and of course you have
for example bad pronunciation habits or
bad habits with grammar I don't know I
of course I have that it was just a
little bit of disclaimer that please
don't judge it too strictly and too
seriously okay I'm just aware of many of
my mistakes and in this video I will not
talk about how to master a new language
I will talk about that if you are in a
zero level so you are very beginner then
what helped me to approach the
language in a way that is very efficient
and get me to a communication level the
main reason why I started with this
challenge it was because I was telling
to my friends many times that oh it's
easy to learn a new language you can do
it within within a year you can do it
even in some months so it shouldn't that
shouldn't be that hard and I was quite
confident because I've read a lot about
it that it can be done really fast ly
and really efficiently but if I think
about it I've never actually proved it
so I thought that it is high time to
show to them and also of course to
myself that is it actually possible if
you use these techniques and you are
really focusing on the language and yeah
my answer it is if you are using the
good strategies and techniques let's
take a look to my language learning
experiences because I think it's it's
important and it's interesting maybe you
can relate to many many of my problems
that I had with languages I learned
English in elementary school also in
high school I was in a bilingual class
and in the last few years I've been
watching a lot of English on YouTube
especially so as a Hungarian I get quite
a lot of compliments to my English but
I'm still aware of the lot of mistakes
that I'm doing but if I look at English
I've put many many hours into English
for sure my second language in high
school was German yah we German I had a
lot of struggle although I took the
intermediate language exam in high
school
I've never really felt confident about
my German and I went to Austria for nine
months and there in the first I think
for five month I understood very very
little it was very difficult for me to
get the accent of the Austrians and I
had a hard time with German after I left
Austria they said that all my German is
good but still I know that I cannot
express myself as I want to in German
and I still have a lot of difficulties
to understand German I had a little
experience with Slovak with Slovak I've
already used a lot of good techniques
because I was reading about how to learn
languages and that led to some success
but Slovak it was tricky because Slovak
language is very very difficult the
grammar structure is like oh my god it's
it's crazy
I learned Slovak for 4-5 months but I I
wouldn't say that I reached a good
communication level it was just stuff so
I can absolutely identify the
difficulties of any language learner
it's like you just cannot talk in that
language you cannot express yourself you
have struggle with learning new words
and especially remembering the words
that you've already learned for me one
of the biggest challenge is to
understand the native speakers when we
are speaking really fast ly and also the
grammar structures could be really
really difficult but the good news is
that there are solutions to these
problems and if you are using the right
techniques then you will improve much
faster and it's very important because
if you see results it will keep you
motivated it's it's it's really
important if you if you see that ah ok
I'm I'm getting better I'm getting
better then it will be the fuel of your
motivation not just in the short run but
also in the long long run
I chose Spanish because simply I like
the Spanish people who I met I like
their culture their country also the
weather in Spain right now I am in
Malaga and it's incredibly good weather
also in in February and in the future if
I'm planning a bit more travel around
the world Spanish is a very good
language to have in your pocket because
many spanish-speaking countries people
don't speak that well English I
experiencing death here in Malaga so I
think it's a useful language and I also
have my own motivation to learn it I
think it's important to don't choose the
language simply because oh it's very
useful but you hate it if you're gonna
hate that language it's not a good start
in my opinion it's also very important
to have clear goals
my main goal with this challenge is not
to reach for example a b1 or b2 level in
Spanish so it's not language exam it's
much more orientated towards
communication and I know that it's not
so easily measurable I tried my best to
measure it I try to speak with natives
but it's important to see that I'm
really heading towards communication I
will also have very clear goals about
how much time I will put into learning I
will talk about that a bit later one of
the big inspiration for this language
learning experience was a little
documentary that was made by Connor
grooms I think the title is Spanish in a
month so he reached in a month a quite
good communication level I was quite
shocked and inspired at the same time so
I reached out to him and asked him that
what was the main things that he focused
on in this short period of time there's
basically three most important
activities when it comes to learning
Spanish and that's a lot of one-on-one
time with a native speaker ideally with
a teacher yes an SRS so you're doing
flashcards so the point of flashcards is
to basically get vocabulary into your
head so when you're in a conversation
you can remember it
you're not going to completely learn a
word just from the flashcard but it gets
you the point where you can remember it
so once you actually use it that's when
you actually remember it and then
focusing on the sounds really early
because ultimately language is just
sound so if you don't get the sounds
down early on basically everything else
that you do you're kind of screwed so
those are the three things that I focus
on and and those are the most important
activities let's begin with vocabulary I
think that everybody is familiar with
this
it's okay that you for example you learn
20 new words a day but the question is
how you manage to do that for 40 50
years to learn these new words and at
the same time remembering the verse that
you've already learned that does the
challenge this is their program called
Anki comes into play because with this
program you are able to create
flashcards and it uses a spaced
reputation system which is very useful
for learning new words it uses some
space between you are repeating the
words again and again I don't want to go
into details I take a short video about
spaced repetition system in the
description and if you understand how
spaced repetition system works then you
will immediately understand why it works
in this program I've created my own
flashcards
I not just used simple Spanish and
English translations I did a lot more I
always searched for the pronounced
Spanish word also an example Santos in
Spanish and this example sentence in
Spanish had also the pronunciation on
the flashcard and I also used two
different kinds of cards one was for
training my ears so it was a blank card
where I had to recognize what does the
native speaker says so it was a really
good training to catch up with
pronunciation I will do a whole video
about how I used monkey I put the link
in the video description but very
briefly I try to show it to you so for
example this one is a blank card which
is good for listening skills if I press
the button R then the audio is playing
they are open they occupy no my task is
to recognize what the guy says what the
native speaker says and in the back
there are many information first what
I'm trying to do is to connect the
accompany are the word with the
I don't want to translate it I really
want to see the picture and the word at
the same time so I try to learn with
images I also see the pronounced
sentence that we heard before again if I
press the button R I can hear it again
there are bio tech coupon you always use
example sentences if you learn new words
because you can see how that given word
works in a sentence which is also very
good for grammar and what I'm also doing
I try to repeat this sentence many times
maybe it seems a little silly but in
this way I get the feeling of the rhythm
of the language the speed the melody and
I'm learning a lot which is good for
listening skills a coupon you coupon you
okay and I can decide how difficult it
was I will talk about about this in a
later video but this is the power of
spaced repetition system and Anki so
check out that video and the other type
of flashcard was always for recalling
the word so it was an image or an
English word there that I had to recall
in Spanish I think there's a big
difference between remembering a word so
you can recognize what does that Spanish
word mean and between recalling a word
so you can name for example an object in
Spanish language recalling is much more
powerful and this one is an example for
the other type of card here I need to
recall the Spanish word so in this way I
don't strengthen my passive vocabulary
but the active vocabulary and if I go to
show the answer
Jacopo you're a cute boy array yup we
are a again what I'm doing I try to
connect this word with the picture which
is really useful there's the example
sentence what I'm also trying to repeat
many times Jo Jo Jo Jo Jo ara I'm taking
care of I am
and putting the stress for example it's
not a boy yeah rare it's not a boy it's
a boy array it's important and one thing
that I would like to add when I'm
repeating this sentence I know what it
means
and I try to imagine a situation in my
head where I can use this Spanish
Santa's so for example a friend needs
some help and I can say to him Yatta
Yatta Yatta ARA in this way it's not
translation but it's an imagination of
this sentence where it could be used
this flashcard system is full of many
useful words and sentences and pictures
everything the most commonly used 750
words in Spanish is there with the
sentences hello Allah Mita telemetered
with the splash guard system many things
were happening at the same time I
learned new words daily I could remember
the words that I learned previously and
of course as I said there was the
pronunciation of the word and the
pronunciation of the sentence so it was
a very good training for my ears and I
also repeated the sentences in a way as
the native speaker said so I really got
used to the rhythm and the feeling of
this language again if you are
interested check out the video or write
me an email
I put an email address in the
description when you are learning a new
language you just need to get into this
beginner mindset many times when we are
making mistakes and we have failures in
life we just we just don't like that but
when you are learning a new language you
need to make mistakes
Kohinoor in his movie he demonstrates
really well this idea that you should
focus on communication over perfection
let's talk about the thing holding back
millions of language learners perfection
with any language there are two main
milestones communication and perfection
fluency in 30 days you can go from
nothing to expressing almost any idea
you can communicate almost any idea
after 30 focus days
the mistake most people make is they try
to be perfect and when you try to be
perfect this is how far you can get in
30 days get to here first and be able to
express any idea and then worry about
refining that towards perfection so for
conversations I used baseline here for a
monthly fee you can take as many classes
you want and of course if you just take
like two classes per week it will be
very expensive for you but if you are
serious into language learning it's a
great tool you can have Skype lessons
with teachers from usually from South
America from Venezuela so they can help
you exactly with the thing that you need
which is which is speaking with a native
speaker in the first two weeks I was
building my vocabulary I didn't use
baseline I started after that but after
that it was really good to have this
baseline program because it really
forced me to speak everyday in Spanish
and of course what what is the point of
learning a new language if you if you
don't use it a language is for making
friends making relationships and I had a
lot of lesson with with one guy from
Venezuela and we also had great
conversations and I know that if I go
there I for example I visit him that I
have a friend in Venezuela which is just
the great feeling so language is about
connections you need to start to speak
from the very beginning it's it's an
important one in the meantime the Sun is
making my face yellow hello dog
later on I plan to make a little video
about how I used baseline and what I
suggest to you if you are interested
please subscribe to this channel the
baseline my goal was to hit one hour
every day so without any excuse I had to
talk one hour daily in Spanish for
grammar and to understand the language
structure I mainly used language
transfer language transfer is a audio
course which is free and very good audio
course it is available on Sound Cloud I
put a description in the link no I put a
link in the description and the way
we're learning the language is really
dissecting it to its smallest pieces and
then building it up together
a series of mental exercises in a way
that makes sense for that specific
language I mean to speak about the
language transfer project and the
methodology is to teach a language a lot
of content in record time but it's not
just about the content that's just half
of the journey the other half of the
journey is the way you learn how to
think about language I found it very
useful so I listened it two times and I
also listened the espanol English
version where the guy teaches a Spanish
speaker to English so I spent quite a
lot of time with language transfer it
was perfect for me because when I was
traveling when I was walking I could
listen to it and it really taught me how
to how to think in Spanish for further
comprehension training
I used mainly YouTube and Netflix and
some music I think these are incredible
useful sources for language learning I
put a youtube link in the description I
found a course which is which has some
episodes where a woman teaches Spanish
but not in English she teaches it in
Spanish so everything is in Spanish also
the explanations are in Spanish and when
we are not speaking Spanish it's quite
strange and weird but I felt when I was
listening it I understood what she wants
to say with the different grammar
structures and I I liked it a lot on
Netflix
I watched the series called gran hotel
it's a Spanish series in Netflix what I
did was I first watched one episode with
Spanish audio and english subtitle and
after that immediately I watched it
again with Spanish audio again of course
and with Spanish subtitles in this way I
already knew what the story was and I
could focus more on the language and I
could really pick up more words
I think music doesn't require much
explanation with Spanish music you have
tons of options I think it's just fun
and in my opinion it's a good idea to
learn two or three songs in memory and
in this way you can pick up the fast and
rapid speaking and and it could be very
beneficial for your pronunciation for
sure oh yeah oh yeah I go sad baby baby
let's look at the number of hours that I
put into this project as I said it is
difficult to measure how my
communication is and it's not a good
goal for goal-setting
I believe in numbers and if I use the
good methods I trust that the results
will come in the first two weeks I
started with two and half hours of
studying and when I felt that I am
progressing well and I knew that this
project will be awesome
I added on it and for the following four
weeks I learned almost 5 hours daily
that means that I spent about 160 hours
practicing the language if I break it
down
this meant 70 hours of vocabulary
training with unki about 30 hours of
skype lessons I listened the language
transfer twice and the Spanish version
once that was 35 hours and I watched
YouTube and Netflix that added up 25
hours and it was in my free time I have
to say that it was very intense and I
just had to give up some other
activities and it also made some
struggles sometimes Huachuca so just
mention again this project looks like
that I only learn after 5 p.m. right now
I managed to catch a minor cold I sucked
with some emails today so it's not that
much fun in the evening I started to
make flashcards after that I had the
Skype lesson and soon it is 11 p.m. and
I still have to learn the vocabulary so
sometimes it sucks
let's take a look some other factors
besides language learning
I think that really helped me to succeed
in an interview Bill Gates and Warren
Buffett who are the two richest man in
the world they are talking about the
importance of focus I'm a big believer
of deep and focused work and I did that
with my Spanish learning so when I was
learning Spanish I was really learning
Spanish I didn't do anything else to
improve my focus I did meditation every
day it's a great way to keep your mind
healthy and also to strengthen that
focus with such an intense project like
this it's very important to keep your
body healthy so my goal was to hit
10,000 steps every day and during my
walks I could listen steal some Spanish
and in these days I went swimming three
times per week which just also very good
for learning of course I feel it is my
personal mission to point at the
importance of ergonomics because all
that sitting is just poisonous to your
body unfortunately I know this because I
had a spine surgery so I knew that it's
very important for me to change
positions all the time when I was
learning I was on my stomach sitting on
the floor kneeling standing walking it
in the house the point is not to stuck
in the same position I figured out many
little exercises when I needed a little
break from studying here for example I
throw the ball kick with my leg up which
is a nice stretch for my hamstring and
with the other foot I kick the ball to
my hands or I played a bit with some
juggling these may seem very little
neuroses to you but I know that without
them I would have failed with my task
much more easily for daily motivation
I chose Gary Vaynerchuk not much just
5-10 minutes per day to be honest I just
love this guy or at least his contents
or why you can't because for what but
it's just not true because if anybody
ever did it
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the biggest poison in us is regret soon
as I end this video you can see as I
speak in Spanish
to be honest I'm quite happy about the
level that I reached because the people
that I talk to they thought the time you
know Spanish forty years already
and I was able to have conversations
which is the most important part I would
like to tell you why it is worth to
subscribe to this channel I plan to make
similar challenges in other languages
and I'm gonna try to share as much
useful information as I can right now
I am focusing to my Hungarian channel
but whenever I have a bigger project
like this I will also do an English
version
hence the next video maybe takes a while
so please hit the bell next to the
subscribe button if you don't want to
miss it
I'm not only interested in languages of
course I have other ideas where I also
would like to take challenges for
example I really want to try what could
happen if I try to learn a new
instrument in six weeks with such an
intensity that I learned Spanish and
some training or movement related topics
are also on the top of my list for
example how to improve my mobility so
again if you are interested please
subscribe hit the bell and maybe write a
comment that what would you like to see
in the future also if you liked this
video it is a great support for the
future of the channel
little Dennis Mari see
rooster Madrid say está de una vez the
hysteria
Vivian ludley dos o tres veces es muy
bien with you the cuando llegaste see a
Buddhist a needlessly yes yes hey what'd
ya say we won't need that we tell a few
that see just as much as crystal
barlavento porque está robando Galia
solo okay see estamos no estoy hablando
espanol este momento me gustaría I said
un poco video aha don't do this is to
the end then Studio C studio and la casa
ah la casa solo porn is everything less
see unless I'm last up low English
Daniel Boone and yo man yo como
spspecial
boy boy now must master the Sun yes mas
de dos anos okay es una experimenta con
español para me for care and pisser
aprender español I say
seis Samanas Mysterio say samanas and
Syria is muy interser pero pero me gusta
el idioma gusta la gente so enters this
my Gustav Gustav
I'm dead on the errors somos de españa
Catalunya Catalunya ce que a case to
favorito football football club club s
nastic nasty nasty Carrasco no as I said
under division means me premiering it
was nasty Kevin Doyle versa see
cuando cuando llegaste in budapest el
miércoles l me at fellas huh he come on
tape arrested Budapest was a muchas mono
mentos we were neato at the mucho Frio
which appeal were free as a preoperative
parami see and en este momento que el
cual degra and Espania brothers estamos
en como estas practic ando aprender
idioma and cordial pienso is muy
importante
with today's Casas case dress cosas que
mas importante and my opinion as buena
pronunciation Segundo s
deberías see the various upland their
corn sufficient efficient a palabras por
ejemplo un programa que as possibly a
blended Belarus we have you see at the
Mantha see a fellow tienes que hablar
mucho see look there's nothing special
in what I did
I simply focused on the things that work
many speaking with native speakers
I made memory cards for the efficient
learning of new words I took care of my
pronunciation in the beginning I learned
the most important words and grammar
structures I focused the communication
over perfection and of course I put the
time and energy into it even if you
don't learn that in dance
as I did in these six weeks but with
these methods and with persistence you
can also reach a level much faster than
you've ever thought before please like
this video share with others and maybe
comment what other project you would
like to see or what techniques or
language learning strategies you really
liked and yeah final there's some info
about my Enki flashcards in the
description see you in the next project
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