WEBVTT

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When I was 21 years old, 
I could only speak English,

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which is typical for those of us 
from English-speaking countries,

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and I had many reasons why

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this is going to be the case for me
for the rest of my life.

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And I was very confident of this,

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because I had no natural talent,

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I had a very bad memory,

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I couldn't travel to the country yet,

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I was too old, I felt too old

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and I was sure

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that I was going to frustrate 
the native speakers

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and embarrass myself.

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And on top of this, in school,

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I did really poorly with languages.

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So, I did actually get the opportunity
to get into languages

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after I graduated at university

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with a degree in Electronic Engineering,

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still only able to speak English,

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I moved to Spain.

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And I figured, this is it!

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this is going to solve my problems,

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living in the country.

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No!

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Six months later of living in Spain,

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I couldn't speak any Spanish.

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Now, a sensible person 
would have given up at this stage

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and gotten the point.

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I'm not very sensible though.

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So I figured

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if I change my approach

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and change my attitude,

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maybe I can change my language skills.

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And what happened to inspire me 
to get into language learning

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was I met a polyglot.

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A polyglot is someone
who can speak many languages.

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And the first time
you meet someone like that,

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you can't help
but feel really impressed.

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Like, for instance
there's Richard from the UK,

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and there's one video online
where he speaks 16 languages.

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Let me just show you a little clip here

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and you can see him:

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French,

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Estonian,

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Czech

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and Catalan

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which is pretty impressive.

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We also have Luca from Italy,

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and here you can hear him speak in:

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German

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and Portuguese.

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And we also have Susana,

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who goes through here:

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Italian

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Russian.

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And a very impressive video I saw once

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of this 16-year-old 
from America called Tim,

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goes through 20 languages in one video,

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and in this part here
you can see him go through:

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Wolof,

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Yiddish,

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Hebrew,

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Arabic,
Turkish,

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Swahili

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and Hindi.

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So wow!

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I met someone like this 
and I was so impressed.

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I thought to myself,
"I want to be like that!"

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But the reason I wanted to be like that

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is because I wanted people 
to think I'm smart,

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to be impressed with me,

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and I met this polyglot 
at the start of my time in Spain

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and with this very superficial motivation,

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just because it will be cool
to learn a language,

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I failed.

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So, what I discovered 
after those 6 months

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is one of the biggest problems
we have in language learning

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but we don't know it,

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and that's motivation.

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A lot of us start with the wrong 
motivation to learn a language.

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We are learning the language
just to pass an exam,

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to improve our career prospects

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or, in my case,

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for superficial reasons 
to impress people.

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And what I've found

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is that those polyglots
that I've just shown in the video,

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the reason they're learning the language

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is because they're passionate
about that language,

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They're passionate about 
the literature, and the movies

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and being able to read in a language

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and of course to use it with people.

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And when I changed that priority
of use in the language of people,

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I was able to learn 
the languages myself.

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But there are a lot of things 
that people feel

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will not allow them to learn a language.

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So I want to go through...

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I think there's five, 
I asked a lot of people,

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there's five major reasons
they'd never get into language learning.

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So, let me go through some of these here.

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The first is they've 
no language gene or talent.

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No language gene or talent, well,

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what does that mean?

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I mean, sometimes this is actually 
just a self-fullfilling prophecy.

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In my case,

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when I had to learn 
the language growing up,

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or the six months 
of failed learning Spanish,

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it was just me telling myself,
"I don't have the language gene,

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so there's no point
in doing any work in the language."

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Because I didn't put the work in

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I didn't learn the language,

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it's just a vicious circle,

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it's all in your head.

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There's no language gene,

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we all have it already.

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But let's just imagine 
some people who do better,

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because we see it in school,

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people advance faster
than the rest of the crowd.

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So let's say there's some inborn trait

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to give somebody 20% advantage 
over the rest of the people.

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Good for them!

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But that doesn't mean that you can't,

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it just means that you have 
to work 20% harder.

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And I've found that, 
at least in my case,

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when I work harder, I can catch up 
with the naturally talented

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and even overtake them.

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So, not having talent
is not a good excuse.

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The next reason

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is that you are too old 
to learn a second language.

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I certainly felt this myself

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because up to 21, 
I didn't learn a language,

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and lots of us feel that children...

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their brains are hard wired
to learn languages better.

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But is it really neurology at play here

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or could it be the environment

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in which the child 
is learning the language?

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Well, a study at the 
University of Haifa in Israel

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actually found that 
under the right conditions,

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adults are better language
learners than children.

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It's sound incredible
but it's about your environment,

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it's about your motivation,

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it's about the enthusiasm 
and encouragement

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you get from other people.

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And when you think of it,

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adults tend to be studying
dusty old grammar books

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and doing boring exercises,

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while children are playing 
in the language, having fun in it.

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So I found that when I changed this
to live through the language,

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not making it by studying the language,
but living the language,

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then I was much more successful.

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So you're not too old 
to learn a language.

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I've met people in their sixties
starting to learn a language

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and being successful with that.

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The next excuse people would have,

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is that they can't travel 
to the country right now.

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Now, maybe 20 years ago
this would have been a valid excuse

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but nowadays 
the world is smaller than you think.

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Thanks to the internet,

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we can connect with native speakers 
from across the planet

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and you'll see that in a lot of cases,

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they might want to learn your language,

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and then money is not even an issue,

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because you teach them a little
and they teach you a little.

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But even forgetting the internet
for a moment,

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a lot of us live in cities or towns

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that are more international 
than what we think,

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and when I was travelling in America,

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I made it to Columbus, Ohio,
of all places,

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to meet this very interesting polyglot 
called Moses,

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and he does what he likes
to call "leveling up",

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where he'll go to some public place

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and just see if he can find 
some foreigners

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and practice the language with them.

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And I joined him when 
we went to a mall in Columbus,

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and the two of us managed 
to practice twelve languages,

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and just here in this clip you can see
he goes through:

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Cantonese,

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and here's Cambodian,

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and you can see that the guy 
really appreciated him trying.

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So, you can learn a language anywhere,

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and I wanted to push this to the limit,

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in my most recent project
I went to the middle of Brazil,

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of all places,

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to learn Egyptian Arabic.

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And I succeeded,

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because even though 
there were no Egyptians around me,

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I got on Skype

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and I talked for one or two hours a day

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and I managed 
to go up towards conversation levels.

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So no!

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not being able to travel to the country
is not a good excuse.

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The next one people might give

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is that they've got bad memory
for learning all the vocabulary.

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And this was certainly what I felt

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because when I first 
tried to learn Spanish,

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I get a big list of words,

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I tried to go through them

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and I forget them very quickly.

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But research on memory capacity

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has found that

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it's better when you revise these words 
with the right frequency,

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and there's this technique called

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"Spaced repetition",

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where you revise the word

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just before you'll forget it.

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And it looks something like 
this forgetting curve,

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the red line is what typically happens

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when you first see a word

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but to get it into your head
and stuck there permanently

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then just review it to make sure it goes,

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like review it one day later,
then a week later

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and then a month later.

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And there are apps in your Smartphone

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and there's free programs 
that you can download

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that help you time all of this.

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And that's great

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but you can learn the words

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faster and better if you combine this

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with an image association technique.

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So, for instance, let's say
I wanted to learn

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that the Spanish word for
"to fit" is "caber".

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Well, what if I imagine then

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that's barely possible
to fit a bear in a cab?

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"Cab-bear" it's "caber", it's "to fit".

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So you do this for a lot of words

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and it actually gets 
very easy with time

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and you can learn vocabulary instantly.

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So no, having a bad memory 
is not a good excuse.

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Next,

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and I think the most important one

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that the people always say,

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is that they're going 
to frustrate native speakers.

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And this is just so not true.

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I've been to many places, 
I've spoken to many people

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and every time
I attempt to use their language,

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they're overjoyed, they're so pleased

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that I'm even trying!

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And I just feel like, especially adults,

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when we learn a language,
we are such perfectionists,

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we want everything to be just right,

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and perfectionism is a really 
bad thing in language learning,

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because a language 
is a means of communication,

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it's a way to get to know 
new people and new cultures,

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and when you embrace this,

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it's okay to make mistakes!

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And I actually have a goal
to make at least 200 mistakes a day

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because then I know 
I'm getting somewhere,

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I'm using the language!

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So embarrass yourself,

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go out there, talk to people

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it's okay.

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When do you think 
I was learning a language better:

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here?

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or here?

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(Laughter)

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So, anyone can indeed learn a language

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when you use it with people,

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and it's okay to use it early,

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And this is so important,

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that you don't have to wait

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until you speak the language perfectly 
and fluently and so on.

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You can get into it
sooner than you'd expect

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and it opens up so many doors
to these other cultures.

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So for instance,

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after I'd learned that Arabic in Brazil,

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I made it to Egypt

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and I made all the way deep 
into the Sahara desert,

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I sat down in the sand with an Egyptian

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and we had some tea,

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we had this nice little chat here:

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(In Arabic)

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(In Arabic)

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and there I'm just saying that

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Egypt is so much, so vast, so great,

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it's so much more
that just Tahrir Square in Cairo.

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And, now when I was speaking with him,

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I used the wrong word here and there

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and I conjugated the wrong verb
every now and again,

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but that's okay,

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because even with
this conversation level,

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I had this fascinating 
conversation with him.

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And I've done this with 
other cultures and other languages

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and I even managed to learn 
a little American sign language.

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And here you can see 
Juliana had asked me

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why I didn't learn Irish sign language,

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and I said, because when I'm in Ireland

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I like to improve my Irish 
and my Gaelic

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which I can then speak here:

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(In Irish)

00:12:31.746 --> 00:12:34.528
so that was me on Irish radio

00:12:34.528 --> 00:12:36.511
saying about my travels and whatever,

00:12:36.511 --> 00:12:40.268
and I learned Irish 
for ten years in school

00:12:40.268 --> 00:12:43.767
and I wasn't able to say 
the most basic phrases after that.

00:12:43.767 --> 00:12:45.260
But as an adult,

00:12:45.260 --> 00:12:46.750
I went back to Ireland

00:12:46.750 --> 00:12:50.263
and I embraced using 
the language as a beginner.

00:12:50.263 --> 00:12:52.771
And that helped me to reach this stage.

00:12:52.771 --> 00:12:54.504
And it's okay to be a beginner,

00:12:54.504 --> 00:12:56.737
it's okay to be conversational,

00:12:56.737 --> 00:12:58.743
but when you take this on,

00:12:58.743 --> 00:13:00.759
you take it to the next level,

00:13:00.759 --> 00:13:02.267
then you can reach very well.

00:13:02.267 --> 00:13:04.502
I mean, I've got 
a very good level in French,

00:13:04.502 --> 00:13:05.747
Spanish and acouple of languages.

00:13:05.747 --> 00:13:07.762
I've worked as a professional translator

00:13:07.762 --> 00:13:09.767
like here I'm having a chat in French:

00:13:09.767 --> 00:13:13.392
(In French)

00:13:13.392 --> 00:13:15.458
and that's great, 
that's what everybody thinks of

00:13:15.458 --> 00:13:17.062
when they're getting
into language learning,

00:13:17.062 --> 00:13:18.252
they think, "That's what I want to be,

00:13:18.252 --> 00:13:20.232
I want to be at this 
very high professional level,

00:13:20.232 --> 00:13:23.102
have deep philosophical conversations."

00:13:23.102 --> 00:13:24.511
and that's fantastic

00:13:24.511 --> 00:13:27.019
and yeah, it's impressive
when you see people like that.

00:13:27.019 --> 00:13:28.503
But rather than be impressive,

00:13:28.503 --> 00:13:29.627
I think it's so much better

00:13:29.627 --> 00:13:32.513
when you embrace the beginning stage
of language learning.

00:13:32.513 --> 00:13:35.260
And one of the most 
amazing experiences I've had,

00:13:35.260 --> 00:13:37.764
was when I was in China, on the train,

00:13:37.764 --> 00:13:40.505
at 2000 kilometers deep into China,

00:13:40.505 --> 00:13:43.011
and I had a basic conversation
of "What's your name?"

00:13:43.011 --> 00:13:45.777
and it turns out 
I was given my Chinese name

00:13:45.777 --> 00:13:47.055
there on the train,

00:13:47.055 --> 00:13:48.384
and look, this is how it went:

00:13:48.384 --> 00:13:49.740
(In Chinese)

00:13:49.740 --> 00:13:51.494
"What's your name?"

00:13:51.494 --> 00:13:52.783
"I'm Benny."

00:13:52.783 --> 00:13:54.763
(In Chinese)

00:13:54.763 --> 00:13:56.773
"I don't have a Chinese name."

00:13:56.773 --> 00:13:58.516
and then (unclear),

00:13:58.516 --> 00:14:02.259
says, 
"I tell you your name is Pun Li."

00:14:02.259 --> 00:14:04.783
because this sounds 
like your normal name

00:14:04.783 --> 00:14:08.126
and it means ability or skill.

00:14:08.126 --> 00:14:10.098
And you know,

00:14:10.098 --> 00:14:11.747
just, I can have that conversation,

00:14:11.747 --> 00:14:14.746
even with a basic conversation
level of Chinese.

00:14:14.746 --> 00:14:16.246
And I do have the ability,

00:14:16.246 --> 00:14:17.751
I do have the skill to learn a language.

00:14:17.751 --> 00:14:20.066
But I always did,

00:14:20.066 --> 00:14:21.747
we all always do.

00:14:21.747 --> 00:14:24.103
And the reason I have this skill

00:14:24.103 --> 00:14:27.283
is not because I was born
with it and others weren't,

00:14:27.283 --> 00:14:30.242
it's a decision I made.

00:14:30.242 --> 00:14:32.742
And the problem a lot of us face

00:14:32.742 --> 00:14:35.242
is that we feel that 
we're better studying

00:14:35.242 --> 00:14:38.222
and preparing for speaking 
a language some day,

00:14:38.222 --> 00:14:40.038
because if we do it too early

00:14:40.038 --> 00:14:42.534
the world will end 
from all this frustration

00:14:42.534 --> 00:14:44.211
we cause people.

00:14:44.211 --> 00:14:46.241
There are seven days in a week

00:14:46.241 --> 00:14:49.240
and some day is not one of them.

00:14:49.240 --> 00:14:53.506
I say, rather than see 
if the world will end,

00:14:53.506 --> 00:14:57.496
a whole new world will begin
if you try to learn a new language.

00:14:57.496 --> 00:14:58.964
So I hope you'll give it a try.

00:14:58.964 --> 00:14:59.994
Thank you.

00:14:59.994 --> 00:15:02.764
(Applause)