WEBVTT
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This T-shirt represents everything I'm going to say today.
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Can you see the shirt?
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Even at the back?
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It's actually, it's a match, which is here on fire,
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and there it's completely burned up.
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and this represents language learning for me.
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because when I study languages,
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I'm enthusiastic and energetic,
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then I feel like I'm on fire and burning and dying,
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and I end up frazzled and at the end I have to lie down.
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Whereas Richard, I heard him say that it's the opposite way around for him.
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He comes home after a hard day's work
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"Well, I feel on fire! I'm completely alive!"
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And at the end of hard session, he's reinvigorated.
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So, I want my language learning
to stop being like that
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and to be more like that.
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And I've always been fascinated
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with this difference,
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why some people frazzle at the end
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and some people get energised.
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OK. So my presentation touches a bit on that.
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I have to be ambidextrous
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which I'm not.
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So, the number 262 is important
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because that's how many slides I've got.
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[Laughter]
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Yeah.
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Oops! Sorry. It's not doing anything.
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[Audience member] - Try again!
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No.
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Yeah, all my slides say 262.
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[Laughter]
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Oh, is it up here?
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Where does it point?
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Oh, I was pressing the wrong button. OK.
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I'm not good at technical stuff.
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Yeah. And that's about how many minutes
I've got to do it.
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So, if you're good at numbers. That's a lot of slides.
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So I'll be talking quickly.
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Anthony Lauder.
That's me.
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Who?? Never heard of him.
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I'm the only person here that I've never heard of.
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This is a polyglot conference.
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Polyglots? What? Why am I here?
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[Laughter]
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I'm a "polyNot".
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I am useless at languages.
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My cats are better polyglots than me.
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If I say "food", they come running.
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If I say "tickle", they roll on their backs.
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If they say "Miaow",
I've got no idea what they're saying at all.
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[Laughter]
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I'm good at mathematics. OK?
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So, you shouldn't invite me
to a conference to talk about languages.
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Instead, I'm going to talk about
the Peano Axioms,
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which were formulated by Giuseppe Peano
in 1889.
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And the Peano Axioms, as you probably know,
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[Laughter]
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are the product of meta-mathematical research
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into fundamental questions of consistency and completeness in number theory.
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And specifically they state that all natural numbers are closed,
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under an injective and non-zero successor function. Yeah?
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And a reflexive, symmetric, transitive equality func...
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Zzzzzzz [snoring]
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[Laughter]
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Sorry.
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In other words...
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[Audience Member] It was interesting!
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Yeah, thank you.
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Think... This is what it's saying in real English.
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Think of a number.
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41
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Add one to it
and what do you get?
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42
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Brilliant. So, you're good at mathematics.
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You can apply Peano's axioms
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Because that's all they say.
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You get another number.
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And you can keep going.
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41 plus 1 is 42 and if you add one again
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you don't get 42, you get... 43.
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Is it?
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And you can keep going and going...
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And this "Add 1" is all you need.
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You can count to all the numbers in the universe, and beyond.
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And what's the lesson from this?
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When you're good at adding one,
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numbers become really easy.
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Great.
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When you're bad at adding 1,
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numbers are very hard.
[Laughter]
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So, how does this relate to polyglottery?
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Well, it actually does.
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I'm going to take my sandals off,
because they're slipping around a bit.
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So, if you can smell anything bad,
it's Richard, it's not me.
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I'm using Peano Axioms to understand
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the easiest way to be able to speak 10 foreign languages.
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I see on the forums,
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people always want to know what's the easiest way,
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what's the quickest way, what's the best method.
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I'm going to tell you now
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with my strong mathematical background
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- I have a PhD in Theoretical Computer Science.
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I'm really good at this kinda stuff. -
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And I'm gonna tell you how, using that,
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to be good at speaking 10 foreign languages.
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Are you ready?
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Step 1...
[Audience laughter]
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[applause]
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It's really easy. It's a 2 step plan.
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Who could ask for more?
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So, which is the hardest of those two steps?
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I think it's probably step 1 is the hardest, yeah?
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But once you've done that,
it's much easier to add one more.
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OK. And how do you do that?
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The way to be able to speak 9 languages is,
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because that was the hard bit, is
speak 8 and add 1.
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And you can keep going.
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And the hardest step is always step 1.
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And then adding one is easy...
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until you get here.
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Now step 2 is the hard one.
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[Audience laughter]
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Yeah?
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And this is important!
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Because for mega-polyglots, adding 1 is really easy.
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But for people like me, "polyNots",
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adding 1 is really hard.
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And my speech is going to be about why.
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Yeah, this is the big question.
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Literally. It's a big question.
[Audience laughter]
NOTE Paragraph
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[Applause]
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So, I don't know the answer!
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I don't know anything about languages,
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so I decided to do some research.
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And I looked into Applied Linguistics,
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and I found out that
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Applied Linguistics is the branch of linguistics
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that's actually useful to people who aren't linguists.
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[laughter & applause]
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So, the other advantage of this is
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anything I say here might be nonsense
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but all I have to do is
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- like English newspapers when they are about to say
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"That guy is a lying idiot" -
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they just put the word "allegedly"
at the beginning
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and don't have to worry about it.
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So allegedly, this is how to be good at adding one.
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So, applied linguistics isn't about theories.
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It's not some people just thinking up
something that "sounds good".
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Instead they do experiments in real life,
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find results, and publish the results.
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It's based on lots of evidence over decades.
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I've read mountains of papers
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and one great book.
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This great book.
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It's big and it's fat
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and it's boring as hell.
[Laughter]
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But it's really good, if you don't mind being bored.
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But it teaches a lot.
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It actually surveys in great detail
600 research studies.
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And it finds,
if you wade through all that,
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that the main difference between
Polyglots and PolyNots - like me -
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- so people like him, and people like me -
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is... polyglots are good at...
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[crowd makes inaudible suggestions]
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guessing.
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[Crowd laughs]
Who got that then? Ha!
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I bet Richard did!
Okay...
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And it turns out,
the reason they're good at guessing,
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- Now don't say nonsense yet, just bear with me -
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is because they have better memories.
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Now you'll say
"No, my memory is no better than anybody else's."
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And it might be true,
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because polyglots do not have
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better long term memory
than mere mortals.
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[Laughing]
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But they do have better short-term memories.
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There's some geeky words here, for linguists only,
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so I hope you can't read them.
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It's qualifying it
in case there are any linguists here.
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Short-term memories is good enough.
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Polyglots can remember things for a few seconds,
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and PolyNots forget them immediately.
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Did I say this yet?
[Laughter]
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It's "in one ear and out the other",
literally.
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So why is short term memory important?
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Why does it matter?
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You know, we learn all these things about
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how to remember words years down the line,
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but why is it important
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to remember something
for 5 seconds or 10 seconds?
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Well, it turns out that
short-term memory is essential to,
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it supports,
3 very important language skills.
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And those are
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noticing things,
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processing things, and
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guessing things.
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I'm gonna get into these in great detail.
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So, without those three skills,
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you can't use the methods that polyglots use.
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And polyNots struggle with language learning because
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they lack the three skills of...
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What were they?
[Laughter]
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noticing, processing and guessing.
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And that's great news for polyglots
and bad news for polyNots.
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Therefore,
the road from polyNottery to polyglottery
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is a process of
developing a better short term memory.
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And then you can train in the skills of
noticing, processing and guessing.
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And from that, you can apply the methods
that polyglots use.
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If you try to apply them
without having those skills,
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you're gonna burn up.
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OK. Now, interestingly, this process
is iterative and bidirectional.
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Oooh, whatever that means.
[Laughter]
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What it actually means is
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the more you improve your memory,
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the better your skills in processing,
and so on, and guessing become.
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And then you can start to use the methods.
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But, once you're using the methods,
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they actually build the skills,
which builds the memory.
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So it sort of snowballs.
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And it turns out,
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you actually only need a few weeks of training
to build these skills,
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and then you can be pretty independent.
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So, let's relate this to language learn--
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... to learning vocabulary.
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Now one reason that it's about vocabulary
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Is because the big fat book I read
is about vocabulary.
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If that book was about something else,
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this speech would be about something else.
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But it's because
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loads and loads and loads of real research
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from applied linguistics and not from theorists
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has shown that in order to comprehend spoken stuff
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and written stuff,
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vocabulary is actually far more important
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than subject knowledge ...
knowledge about the subject matter
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and far more important than grammatical knowledge.
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Now, how many words do you need?
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I guess you people
know all these kind of numbers
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that talk about things like
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"Native speakers have
20,000-word vocabulary."
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Ooh! That's a big number!
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It actually turns out that
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people learn around a thousand words a year
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pretty consistently up until around university age.
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So when a child goes to school for the first time,
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they'll know 5,000 words.
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mostly learned orally
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from their parents,
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and add a thousand words a year.
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"I haven't got 20 years
to learn some foreign language!"
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"Jesus Christ! I am an old man!
I'll be dead by then." [Laughter]
00:13:39.939 --> 00:13:42.469
But you need a very high vocabulary
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in order to have "pleasant free reading",
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for it not to be a frazzling experience,
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for it to be a pleasurable experience.
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If you have 95% coverage of the vocabulary
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in a newspaper
like the Guardian or something,
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You can understand it.
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It's not easy.
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If it's 90%,
understanding of the vocabulary in the Guardian,
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you really know you're studying.
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85% - it's for Richard Simcott and Luca only,
00:14:09.425 --> 00:14:12.365
and even those guys are defeated when it's 80%.
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Oooh, that's pretty spooky.
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So, what's the polyNot approach to vocabulary?
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Well, I didn't have to look very far to know that!
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Yikes! 20,000 words!
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That's a lot of flashcards!
[Laughter]
00:14:35.001 --> 00:14:37.851
PolyNots tend to believe in the existence,
00:14:37.851 --> 00:14:39.961
that there's one magic strategy
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that's going to be the best one.
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You see them asking this on forums.
00:14:43.001 --> 00:14:47.001
Actually, interestingly,
people have spoken to polyNots
00:14:47.001 --> 00:14:49.381
and found that
they don't really believe it
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but they kid themselves into believing it.
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They feel guilty they are not using
a wider range of strategies,
00:14:55.051 --> 00:14:57.961
but they're more comforted by believing
they are using the best one.
00:14:57.961 --> 00:15:01.021
So they seek confirmation
from people like Richard,
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to say, "Yeah, that's a really good one."
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Then they feel they're doing
what the masters do.
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And they tend to stick with it then
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despite all the evidence.
00:15:08.570 --> 00:15:11.580
You know that definition of insanity is
00:15:11.580 --> 00:15:13.570
doing the same thing over and over and over again
00:15:13.570 --> 00:15:14.280
despite all the evidence
00:15:14.280 --> 00:15:16.860
and expecting a different result.
00:15:16.860 --> 00:15:20.860
That's what we do ... us polyNots.
00:15:20.860 --> 00:15:22.700
So, they spend a mass amount of time
00:15:22.700 --> 00:15:25.880
on learning single, unrelated words,
00:15:25.880 --> 00:15:29.600
and you end up with things like "Anki addiction".
00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:32.390
I've seen on Anki forums guys saying...
00:15:32.390 --> 00:15:35.080
"I've spent 2 hours putting new words into Anki today...
00:15:35.080 --> 00:15:37.300
and 15 minutes reviewing them."
00:15:37.300 --> 00:15:41.300
They're just... addicted.
00:15:41.673 --> 00:15:44.763
And they do these lengthy cramming sessions
00:15:44.763 --> 00:15:47.253
when they want to be heroic.
00:15:47.253 --> 00:15:50.253
"Ooh. I'll get as much energy as I can
00:15:50.253 --> 00:15:52.963
and do a cramming session tonight."
00:15:53.833 --> 00:15:57.833
And they want to pin down
the one true meaning of a word
00:15:57.833 --> 00:16:01.833
and get that one simple definition
on their flashcard.
00:16:01.833 --> 00:16:04.553
They see dictionaries as authoritative,
00:16:04.553 --> 00:16:08.553
so that, if they think they know
what a word means,
00:16:08.553 --> 00:16:11.923
but they see a different definition
of the word in the dictionary
00:16:11.923 --> 00:16:15.923
they'll abandon their own understanding of the word
as completely wrong.
00:16:15.923 --> 00:16:17.373
"Oh no! I'm an idiot."
00:16:17.373 --> 00:16:18.073
"I've got it wrong."
00:16:18.073 --> 00:16:20.593
"It means something else
because the dictionary tells me so."
00:16:20.593 --> 00:16:23.433
And they beat themselves up
when they forget a word.
00:16:23.433 --> 00:16:28.283
As you can imagine,
I'm beating myself up a lot.
00:16:28.298 --> 00:16:30.958
The idea then is that
you either know a word or you don't.
00:16:30.958 --> 00:16:33.018
It's black or white.
00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:36.280
And you stop reviewing a word
once you know it.
00:16:36.280 --> 00:16:37.390
"Oh, I know that word now,
00:16:37.390 --> 00:16:40.280
time for me to move on to another one."
00:16:40.280 --> 00:16:43.480
And where do they decide
what words they're gonna work on?
00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:45.370
Those that are given to them
in homework
00:16:45.370 --> 00:16:48.770
or in the textbook
are the most important by far,
00:16:48.770 --> 00:16:51.930
even when they know
they're not interesting.
00:16:51.930 --> 00:16:54.790
Things that are in thematic groups.
00:16:54.790 --> 00:16:57.310
I remember when I was studying French,
00:16:57.310 --> 00:17:01.310
and we were given a list of all the
different words for different fishes.
00:17:01.310 --> 00:17:03.530
And it had their English translations,
00:17:03.530 --> 00:17:06.720
and I'd never heard of half of
the English names for the fishes,
00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:09.140
but was still learning the French ones.
00:17:09.140 --> 00:17:10.130
What?!
00:17:10.130 --> 00:17:10.950
This is interesting:
00:17:10.950 --> 00:17:14.300
ones that "sound nice".
00:17:14.300 --> 00:17:15.290
Pampeliška.
00:17:15.290 --> 00:17:17.830
Who knows what pampeliška means?
00:17:17.830 --> 00:17:20.210
It's a nice sounding word...
00:17:20.210 --> 00:17:22.210
You should go and look up what it means.
00:17:22.210 --> 00:17:23.960
Vulgar or unusual words.
00:17:23.960 --> 00:17:25.520
"Eeeee! Let's get the slang book."
00:17:25.520 --> 00:17:26.800
"I can learn the swear words!"
00:17:26.800 --> 00:17:28.520
"Won't that be good?"
00:17:28.520 --> 00:17:32.840
And none of this is about whether the words are useful.
00:17:32.840 --> 00:17:36.780
So, they shun output quite a lot
as too painful
00:17:36.811 --> 00:17:38.891
"Oh no, that's going to remind me
of what I don't know!"
00:17:38.891 --> 00:17:39.621
"I'm going to look like an idiot!"
00:17:39.621 --> 00:17:42.281
"I'm not going to do any output."
00:17:42.281 --> 00:17:45.711
One day I'll know 20,000 words
00:17:45.711 --> 00:17:47.381
and then I'll be fluent.
00:17:47.381 --> 00:17:48.421
It'll be easy.
00:17:48.421 --> 00:17:51.001
I won't need to go through all that output.
00:17:51.001 --> 00:17:54.371
It'll just be easy all of a sudden.
00:17:54.371 --> 00:17:56.161
So, like one of my friends,
00:17:56.161 --> 00:17:57.841
you can say 'octopus'...
00:17:57.841 --> 00:17:59.651
you can say 'hovercraft'...
00:17:59.651 --> 00:18:03.691
but you can't say
"Can you help me, please?"
00:18:03.691 --> 00:18:05.341
[Laughter]
00:18:05.341 --> 00:18:08.571
If only they'd learned
the word for 'helicopter',
00:18:08.571 --> 00:18:12.221
that would have been it!
00:18:12.221 --> 00:18:14.411
So, the polyglot approach to vocabulary
00:18:14.411 --> 00:18:16.481
according to that book
00:18:16.481 --> 00:18:18.541
is very different.
00:18:20.176 --> 00:18:24.176
Vocabulary learning is not an end goal
for polyglots.
00:18:24.176 --> 00:18:27.596
It's not about
"I've got 20,000 words in Anki!"
00:18:27.596 --> 00:18:32.026
No, it's about
effective control over vocabulary
00:18:32.026 --> 00:18:34.856
for confident and fluent use
00:18:34.856 --> 00:18:36.976
in listening, speaking,
reading, and writing,
00:18:36.976 --> 00:18:40.566
not just for getting high scores on Anki.
00:18:40.566 --> 00:18:45.276
So, knowing a word
is not an all or nothing affair.
00:18:45.276 --> 00:18:48.506
Words sink in over time.
00:18:48.506 --> 00:18:51.346
You get repeated viewings,
like on an Anki card,
00:18:51.346 --> 00:18:55.346
but you also get a broader,
more diverse viewing of a word
00:18:55.346 --> 00:18:57.656
from different contexts
00:18:57.656 --> 00:19:00.046
to teach you the wide meanings
00:19:00.046 --> 00:19:03.226
and the broad meanings of words.
00:19:03.226 --> 00:19:09.086
In particular, polyglots see knowing a word
as multidimensional:
00:19:09.086 --> 00:19:10.906
form, meaning, and use.
00:19:10.906 --> 00:19:11.856
Which means,
00:19:11.856 --> 00:19:13.096
the spelling of the word,
00:19:13.096 --> 00:19:15.476
the parts the word is made up of,
00:19:15.476 --> 00:19:16.636
... the word ...
00:19:16.636 --> 00:19:18.186
and the pronunciation of the word,
00:19:18.186 --> 00:19:19.226
what the tone is,
00:19:19.226 --> 00:19:20.356
where the emphasis is,
00:19:20.356 --> 00:19:22.116
all these kind of things.
00:19:22.116 --> 00:19:23.546
And the meaning...
00:19:23.546 --> 00:19:25.666
Maybe there's a central concept to the word,
00:19:25.666 --> 00:19:28.546
but there can be
very diverse meanings as well
00:19:28.546 --> 00:19:29.576
and you have learn all of these.
00:19:29.576 --> 00:19:33.406
You don't reject all of them
apart from the "one true one".
00:19:33.406 --> 00:19:35.716
And words have lots of associations
00:19:35.716 --> 00:19:37.496
- We saw this
in one of the speeches yesterday -
00:19:37.496 --> 00:19:39.276
If you use the wrong word
in the wrong context,
00:19:39.276 --> 00:19:41.856
it'll cause all sorts of
strange associations to people
00:19:41.856 --> 00:19:44.286
that were unexpected to you.
00:19:44.286 --> 00:19:45.776
And use...
00:19:45.776 --> 00:19:48.856
So, is this a high frequency word?
00:19:48.856 --> 00:19:52.196
And in what context is it high frequency?
00:19:52.196 --> 00:19:57.996
"How's it hangin'?"
isn't very high frequency in written form
00:19:57.996 --> 00:19:59.696
for example.
00:19:59.696 --> 00:20:01.246
How formal is it?
00:20:01.246 --> 00:20:05.472
"Hey man, give me five"
isn't very good at a job interview.
00:20:05.472 --> 00:20:07.612
[Laughter]
00:20:07.612 --> 00:20:09.002
Oh, medium, yes...
00:20:09.002 --> 00:20:11.042
Is it spoken form or written form?
00:20:11.042 --> 00:20:12.412
And collocations
00:20:12.412 --> 00:20:13.942
- I don't even know if I'm saying that correctly -
00:20:13.942 --> 00:20:16.822
- I've always said it /kɑləˈkeɪʃənz/ -
00:20:16.822 --> 00:20:19.962
is a thing that polyNots tend to ignore
00:20:19.962 --> 00:20:24.512
but polyglots, even without realising it
00:20:24.526 --> 00:20:28.526
- we'll see - place a lot of emphasis on these.
00:20:28.526 --> 00:20:30.256
So, polyglots cover all those by
00:20:30.256 --> 00:20:34.186
balancing four strands of study:
00:20:34.186 --> 00:20:36.496
Intensive vocabulary study
00:20:36.496 --> 00:20:40.976
This is the stuff that polyNots like me
over-focus on
00:20:40.976 --> 00:20:42.696
Extensive listening and reading
00:20:42.696 --> 00:20:43.556
Speaking and writing
00:20:43.556 --> 00:20:44.606
and Fluency development
00:20:44.606 --> 00:20:46.636
I'll come to these in detail.
00:20:46.636 --> 00:20:49.346
Strand 1: Intensive vocabulary study
00:20:49.346 --> 00:20:51.786
Choose words based on frequency.
00:20:51.786 --> 00:20:55.786
Frequency really means usefulness.
00:20:56.894 --> 00:21:00.114
You need 20,000 words to get 98% coverage.
00:21:00.114 --> 00:21:02.494
"Ha! No! I've got to learn all of them!"
00:21:02.494 --> 00:21:06.784
No. Because even just knowing 10 words,
you can get 24% coverage.
00:21:06.784 --> 00:21:14.874
So, learn those 10 words first.
[Laughter]
00:21:14.874 --> 00:21:19.394
[applause]
00:21:19.394 --> 00:21:21.916
So, it's been shown in research
00:21:21.936 --> 00:21:25.936
that you should study quite intensively the first
00:21:25.936 --> 00:21:28.406
highest frequency 2,000 to 4,000 words
00:21:28.406 --> 00:21:30.076
That's worth putting time in.
00:21:30.076 --> 00:21:31.766
That's worth sticking into Anki.
00:21:31.766 --> 00:21:33.606
In fact, it's very interesting,
00:21:33.606 --> 00:21:36.706
polyglots, perhaps from their vast experience,
00:21:36.706 --> 00:21:38.886
have a general sense
for what's high frequency,
00:21:38.886 --> 00:21:40.646
for what's worth knowing.
00:21:40.646 --> 00:21:41.536
PolyNots don't.
00:21:41.536 --> 00:21:44.046
They see every word
as equally worth knowing
00:21:44.046 --> 00:21:46.176
so they just take other people's lists.
00:21:46.176 --> 00:21:48.486
So, they should probably use frequency dictionaries.
00:21:48.486 --> 00:21:49.466
There are some brilliant ones
00:21:49.466 --> 00:21:50.556
With the most 4,000 ...
00:21:50.556 --> 00:21:54.556
4,000 most important words
in Spanish, or French, or German, ...
00:21:54.556 --> 00:21:55.876
Just go with those.
00:21:55.876 --> 00:21:59.036
Make that your order
rather than randomness.
00:21:59.036 --> 00:22:05.166
But then, rather than learning the next 2,000
high-frequency general words,
00:22:05.166 --> 00:22:07.386
it's far more useful to you to focus on
00:22:07.386 --> 00:22:09.706
the 2,000 most frequent words
00:22:09.706 --> 00:22:13.706
in your specialist field
of personal interest.
00:22:13.706 --> 00:22:15.206
So, for example,
00:22:15.206 --> 00:22:17.486
there's something called the "Academic Word List"
00:22:17.486 --> 00:22:19.966
which has got about 350 words.
00:22:19.966 --> 00:22:20.766
If you learn those
00:22:20.766 --> 00:22:22.676
- There are books on this actually,
things like
00:22:22.676 --> 00:22:24.826
French for Reading,
or German for Reading -
00:22:24.826 --> 00:22:26.856
and they train you to be very good
00:22:26.856 --> 00:22:32.226
with the academic vocabulary
for reading scientific papers.
00:22:32.226 --> 00:22:34.116
You'll learn a few hundred words
00:22:34.116 --> 00:22:36.176
that'll be really useful in that field.
00:22:36.176 --> 00:22:37.786
Conversational vocab
00:22:37.786 --> 00:22:38.186
This is what ...
00:22:38.186 --> 00:22:39.056
- I don't know if anybody knows
00:22:39.056 --> 00:22:40.326
what my "conversational connectors" are -
00:22:40.326 --> 00:22:42.416
This is focusing on stuff that
00:22:42.416 --> 00:22:44.056
you say a lot in conversations
00:22:44.056 --> 00:22:46.726
but you never see in written form.
00:22:46.726 --> 00:22:49.076
So, a lot of people just read textbooks
00:22:49.076 --> 00:22:50.566
or study literature or something,
00:22:50.566 --> 00:22:52.176
and they can't hold a conversation
00:22:52.176 --> 00:22:53.416
because they've never been exposed to
00:22:53.416 --> 00:22:55.116
conversational vocabulary.
00:22:55.116 --> 00:22:58.586
Journalism - It turns out there are
just a few hundred words
00:22:58.586 --> 00:23:00.406
that appear constantly across journalism,
00:23:00.406 --> 00:23:02.936
and you need to know them
to work in that area.
00:23:02.936 --> 00:23:07.546
Fiction.
Fiction has its own vocabulary.
00:23:07.546 --> 00:23:09.786
Shoe selling
00:23:09.786 --> 00:23:12.776
It's worth knowing the word "shoelace"
00:23:12.776 --> 00:23:14.336
if you're doing shoe selling,
00:23:14.336 --> 00:23:18.746
but not if you're reading Tolstoy.
00:23:18.746 --> 00:23:21.586
There was a personal stab
at a specific person there
00:23:21.586 --> 00:23:23.326
I won't say who.
00:23:23.740 --> 00:23:24.980
OK
00:23:26.311 --> 00:23:30.311
Now, some researchers
looked at this whole field
00:23:30.311 --> 00:23:33.021
and they found, for example,
there's a very important textbook
00:23:33.021 --> 00:23:34.431
with 300,000 words.
00:23:34.431 --> 00:23:36.931
- It's a big, fat
telephone directory kind of book
00:23:36.931 --> 00:23:38.451
for macroeconomics -
00:23:38.451 --> 00:23:41.571
and they found that
just 34 specialist words
00:23:41.571 --> 00:23:45.571
covered 10% of that textbook
00:23:45.571 --> 00:23:48.211
Learn those
00:23:48.211 --> 00:23:52.211
if you are interested in macroeconomics.
00:23:52.986 --> 00:23:53.566
Has it stopped? OK.
00:23:53.928 --> 00:23:57.208
Then, beyond those 6000 words,
00:23:57.208 --> 00:24:02.478
"Ankimania" is probably not worth it.
00:24:02.478 --> 00:24:05.678
The words are going to come up too rarely
00:24:05.678 --> 00:24:08.158
to make that intensive study worth it.
00:24:08.158 --> 00:24:11.688
Just let yourself get exposed to them
naturally,
00:24:11.688 --> 00:24:13.928
through [Strand 2] Extensive listening and reading.
00:24:13.928 --> 00:24:16.228
Again, according to the book, not according to me.
00:24:16.228 --> 00:24:19.498
So, extensive listening and reading
does three things.
00:24:19.498 --> 00:24:24.158
It helps you encounter
low frequency words.
00:24:24.158 --> 00:24:27.322
It helps you enrich and deepen
- This is so vital! -
00:24:27.322 --> 00:24:30.362
enrich and deepen
your knowledge of high frequency words.
00:24:30.362 --> 00:24:33.242
It's not, "I know that now.
It's a waste of time me seeing it again."
00:24:33.242 --> 00:24:34.892
It needs to be enriched and deepened.
00:24:34.892 --> 00:24:36.472
And it helps you to master collocations.
00:24:36.472 --> 00:24:38.212
I'm going to come back to those.
00:24:39.002 --> 00:24:42.342
So, unfortunately
to learn words from context,
00:24:42.342 --> 00:24:43.972
from reading and listening,
00:24:43.972 --> 00:24:47.152
you need about 95 to 98% coverage.
00:24:47.152 --> 00:24:52.202
Supergeniuses...
of which there are many in this room
00:24:52.202 --> 00:24:55.282
but none standing up here on the platform
00:24:55.282 --> 00:24:59.282
can manage with 90%.
00:24:59.282 --> 00:25:00.542
So does that mean you've got to have
00:25:00.542 --> 00:25:03.302
20,000-word vocabulary before you start?
00:25:03.302 --> 00:25:04.852
No. It turns out that polyglots
00:25:04.852 --> 00:25:06.912
have this fantastic ability
00:25:06.912 --> 00:25:10.052
at sniffing out manageable material:
00:25:10.052 --> 00:25:14.007
Things they can handle.
Things that don't intimidate them.
00:25:14.007 --> 00:25:17.277
I say,
and many other people have said actually,
00:25:17.277 --> 00:25:20.257
that one of the best things a teacher can do,
is not lecture you on grammar,
00:25:20.257 --> 00:25:22.937
but point out to you
00:25:22.937 --> 00:25:25.057
appropriate material
for you to be working with.
00:25:25.057 --> 00:25:26.517
"You're ready for this now."
00:25:26.517 --> 00:25:28.047
"Go and look at that, now."
00:25:28.047 --> 00:25:31.583
"You won't be overwhelmed and
you won't be underwhelmed."
00:25:31.583 --> 00:25:33.023
An example: graded readers.
00:25:33.023 --> 00:25:34.973
Great, if you are learning English, by the way,
00:25:34.973 --> 00:25:39.673
bad if you're learning
Dzongkha from Bhutan.
00:25:39.673 --> 00:25:41.443
Unfortunately there aren't any.
00:25:41.443 --> 00:25:45.443
But the Oxford Bookworm series
has 6 levels
00:25:45.443 --> 00:25:49.343
each introducing 400 words only.
00:25:49.343 --> 00:25:52.728
Level 1 requires a vocabulary
of only 400 words.
00:25:52.728 --> 00:25:55.498
And by the end of the 6 levels,
00:25:55.498 --> 00:25:57.348
about 10 books in each level,
00:25:57.348 --> 00:26:00.828
you've learned 2,500 high frequency words.
00:26:00.828 --> 00:26:02.498
And they are not baby books.
00:26:02.498 --> 00:26:06.498
It's not "Spot the Dog" or
"Here is Peter and Jane".
00:26:06.498 --> 00:26:09.668
It's things like "Mutiny on the Bounty"
and "The Phantom of the Opera"
00:26:09.668 --> 00:26:11.418
and stuff like that, stuff that adults...
00:26:11.418 --> 00:26:13.428
stuff that's not going to
bore the pants off you.
00:26:13.428 --> 00:26:16.848
And the aim here is not to make it easy.
00:26:16.848 --> 00:26:20.848
The aim here is to help you
develop vocabulary control
00:26:20.848 --> 00:26:26.688
by eliminating the deleterious superfluity
of very low frequency vocabulary,
00:26:26.688 --> 00:26:30.038
such as "deleterious superfluity".
00:26:30.038 --> 00:26:32.978
[Laughter]
00:26:32.978 --> 00:26:36.608
[Applause]
00:26:36.608 --> 00:26:38.598
The idea here is that you hit words
00:26:38.598 --> 00:26:41.928
from many, many, many different angles.
00:26:41.928 --> 00:26:45.192
And you deepen and broaden
your knowledge of it.
00:26:45.192 --> 00:26:45.822
OK?
00:26:45.822 --> 00:26:47.822
Then after those graded readers,
00:26:47.822 --> 00:26:50.082
then you are ready for authentic materials
00:26:50.082 --> 00:26:51.792
in your specialist area.
00:26:51.792 --> 00:26:52.582
You can dive in.
00:26:52.582 --> 00:26:54.472
They've prepared you.
00:26:55.818 --> 00:26:59.818
Now, unfortunately, it takes a long time.
00:26:59.818 --> 00:27:03.818
To learn 1,000 low-frequency words a year
00:27:03.818 --> 00:27:06.338
needs massive amounts of exposure.
00:27:06.338 --> 00:27:10.338
You need - Oh My God! -
one million words
00:27:10.338 --> 00:27:13.998
reading or listening, or a combination
00:27:13.998 --> 00:27:15.888
to give you sufficient repetition
00:27:15.888 --> 00:27:18.278
to absorb 1,000 words a year.
00:27:18.288 --> 00:27:19.998
So, I think that's a realistic goal.
00:27:19.998 --> 00:27:25.298
People want to become masters in days.
00:27:25.298 --> 00:27:27.658
Be realistic.
00:27:27.658 --> 00:27:29.246
OK, that means you have got to read
00:27:29.246 --> 00:27:30.676
one or two books a month,
00:27:30.676 --> 00:27:33.496
or read a magazine like Newsweek
every week,
00:27:33.496 --> 00:27:35.296
to steadily increase your vocabulary
00:27:35.296 --> 00:27:38.526
rather than just maintain your current level.
00:27:38.526 --> 00:27:43.196
OK, so how do you deal with
unknown vocabulary?
00:27:43.196 --> 00:27:47.501
Well, polyNots - like me - rely on a gloss
00:27:47.501 --> 00:27:49.179
that's some kind of cheat-sheet
00:27:49.179 --> 00:27:50.439
with the words in it,
00:27:50.439 --> 00:27:51.779
which is good for textbooks,
00:27:51.779 --> 00:27:53.519
bad when you're reading Harry Potter.
00:27:53.519 --> 00:27:54.819
There isn't a cheat-sheet.
00:27:54.819 --> 00:27:56.489
So then you jump to the dictionary
00:27:56.489 --> 00:27:57.349
and look every word up
00:27:57.349 --> 00:27:59.379
and it's bloody slow.
00:27:59.379 --> 00:28:01.899
It doesn't half make the book far less interesting
00:28:01.899 --> 00:28:05.079
But polyglots, though...
00:28:05.079 --> 00:28:06.909
guess!
00:28:07.615 --> 00:28:09.615
And this is the central thing.
00:28:09.615 --> 00:28:11.895
Guessing is what it's about.
00:28:11.895 --> 00:28:14.065
Guessing, it has been shown
00:28:14.065 --> 00:28:18.065
- with probes in the brain, apparently -
00:28:18.065 --> 00:28:22.065
[Laughter]
- I've had probes in many places, but not yet in my brain. -
00:28:22.065 --> 00:28:26.065
- But that's enough bedroom talk. -
[Laughter]
00:28:26.065 --> 00:28:28.215
So, guessing, it turns out,
00:28:28.215 --> 00:28:30.295
gives longer-lasting and
deeper meaning over time.
00:28:30.295 --> 00:28:31.765
You remember things for longer
00:28:31.765 --> 00:28:34.755
and your understanding of them gets much deeper,
00:28:34.755 --> 00:28:38.755
because you've... thought it through.
00:28:38.755 --> 00:28:40.835
And, yeah, there you go
00:28:40.835 --> 00:28:42.805
and repeated encounters with the words
00:28:42.805 --> 00:28:43.985
in different contexts
00:28:43.985 --> 00:28:46.745
mean you think my guess was probably wrong before
00:28:46.745 --> 00:28:48.605
because now the word means something else
00:28:48.605 --> 00:28:49.325
in this context.
00:28:49.325 --> 00:28:51.285
Oh! That doesn't mean you
reject the old meaning.
00:28:51.285 --> 00:28:56.015
That means enhance it, enrich it,
elaborate it, and broaden it.
00:28:56.015 --> 00:28:57.835
Now good guessing, how does it happen?
00:28:57.835 --> 00:29:00.325
It's not... random guessing.
00:29:00.325 --> 00:29:03.015
It's based on good clues.
00:29:03.015 --> 00:29:05.015
Now knowing similar languages can help.
00:29:05.015 --> 00:29:08.235
"Ah! It's easier for him.
He already speaks... whatever."
00:29:08.235 --> 00:29:09.575
Because, you know, it's easy
00:29:09.575 --> 00:29:11.635
'cause that language has got cognates in it
00:29:11.635 --> 00:29:12.775
- words that are similar.
00:29:12.794 --> 00:29:14.474
But it can also hinder
00:29:14.474 --> 00:29:16.134
due to interference between languages.
00:29:16.134 --> 00:29:18.864
And polyglots, though, are aware of this
00:29:18.864 --> 00:29:21.564
and they have mechanisms for managing it
00:29:21.564 --> 00:29:23.724
and that awareness comes from
00:29:23.724 --> 00:29:24.774
guessing lots of times
00:29:24.774 --> 00:29:27.824
and learning when to be careful.
00:29:28.614 --> 00:29:31.324
They rely far more
00:29:31.324 --> 00:29:33.924
on a wide variety of contextual clues
00:29:33.924 --> 00:29:36.154
to make their guesses sensible,
00:29:36.154 --> 00:29:38.764
rather than just on their backgrounds.
00:29:38.764 --> 00:29:41.434
And they evaluate these clues
against each another.
00:29:41.434 --> 00:29:42.774
There've been loads of studies
00:29:42.774 --> 00:29:43.534
looking at eye movements
00:29:43.534 --> 00:29:45.874
and all these kinda things
00:29:45.874 --> 00:29:47.494
showing people broadening out
00:29:47.494 --> 00:29:48.794
and narrowing in
00:29:48.794 --> 00:29:50.734
to look for new guesses...
00:29:50.734 --> 00:29:52.304
- And it's an automatic process. -
00:29:52.304 --> 00:29:55.974
- You don't even know you're doing it,
once you're doing it. -
00:29:55.974 --> 00:29:58.535
... until they feel that their guess
00:29:58.535 --> 00:30:00.115
is sufficiently well founded,
00:30:00.115 --> 00:30:01.345
or at least as well founded
00:30:01.345 --> 00:30:04.145
as they can make it now.
00:30:05.059 --> 00:30:06.769
So they don't guess randomly.
00:30:06.769 --> 00:30:08.359
They're actually inferring things
00:30:08.359 --> 00:30:09.259
from the context.
00:30:09.259 --> 00:30:11.029
It's informed guessing,
00:30:11.070 --> 00:30:14.710
which increases the chance
that the guessing is sensible.
00:30:14.710 --> 00:30:17.514
And, importantly,
they're happy not to know everything!
00:30:17.514 --> 00:30:20.084
They will leave things for another time.
00:30:20.084 --> 00:30:21.944
Happy with partial understanding.
00:30:21.944 --> 00:30:24.524
PolyNots hate that.
00:30:25.248 --> 00:30:26.638
All the research, though, shows
00:30:26.638 --> 00:30:28.525
that to notice clues,
00:30:28.525 --> 00:30:30.705
and to evaluate them against one another,
00:30:30.705 --> 00:30:32.345
and then to make good guesses,
you need...
00:30:32.345 --> 00:30:35.025
a very strong short term memory.
00:30:35.025 --> 00:30:37.075
And without it,
you don't notice the clues.
00:30:37.075 --> 00:30:38.694
You can't remember them.
00:30:38.694 --> 00:30:40.564
You forget them
as soon as you've seen them.
00:30:40.564 --> 00:30:42.414
And so you can't evaluate them
against each other
00:30:42.414 --> 00:30:45.864
And so your guesses
are absolutely useless!
00:30:45.864 --> 00:30:47.444
Like my guesses.
00:30:47.444 --> 00:30:51.444
Thankfully, short term memory
can be trained.
00:30:51.444 --> 00:30:52.354
The downside, though,
00:30:52.354 --> 00:30:54.754
is that it gets a lot harder
as you get older.
00:30:54.754 --> 00:30:57.274
There's been research by neurologists
00:30:57.274 --> 00:30:59.755
that shows that old guys like me
00:30:59.755 --> 00:31:04.524
have an ever-decreasing
short term memory.
00:31:04.524 --> 00:31:08.489
I'm just hoping to hold on to
the bits I've got left!
00:31:08.489 --> 00:31:09.739
If you're young like half the pe---
00:31:09.739 --> 00:31:11.389
90 percent of the people here,
00:31:11.389 --> 00:31:14.259
compared to me, are very young.
00:31:14.259 --> 00:31:16.728
Train your memory now, if you need to.
00:31:16.728 --> 00:31:18.385
So, the idea though,
00:31:18.385 --> 00:31:22.415
is to gradually increase
your reading span, with recall.
00:31:22.415 --> 00:31:24.485
Just start on a couple of words,
00:31:24.485 --> 00:31:25.725
look away
00:31:25.725 --> 00:31:27.995
and recall what you've just read.
00:31:27.995 --> 00:31:30.595
It doesn't have to be word-for-word,
but close.
00:31:30.595 --> 00:31:32.698
Then broaden it, broaden it,
and broaden it.
00:31:32.698 --> 00:31:34.148
And it has been found that just doing this
00:31:34.148 --> 00:31:36.928
for 10 minutes a day for 6 weeks
00:31:36.928 --> 00:31:40.718
will make you into a good guesser.
00:31:40.718 --> 00:31:42.404
I guess.
[Laughter]
00:31:43.714 --> 00:31:44.724
And then...
00:31:45.404 --> 00:31:49.404
So, once you've got the
noticing and recall bit,
00:31:49.404 --> 00:31:53.214
then you can start to apply guessing.
Yeah?
00:31:53.214 --> 00:31:55.004
You can now recall the clues
00:31:55.004 --> 00:31:56.994
and then you can guess based on them.
00:31:56.994 --> 00:31:58.704
And again, go back to going small,
00:31:58.704 --> 00:32:01.464
expand it out again
00:32:01.464 --> 00:32:04.544
until the guessing becomes automatic.
00:32:04.544 --> 00:32:06.484
And this is what's important:
00:32:06.484 --> 00:32:09.024
automaticity,
doing things without thinking anymore.
00:32:09.024 --> 00:32:13.024
By the way, this is where
you cannot compress experience.
00:32:13.024 --> 00:32:14.044
You can go through the motions,
00:32:14.044 --> 00:32:15.494
but you can't compress experience,
00:32:15.494 --> 00:32:18.684
because it's automaticity of guessing
that you really need.
00:32:18.684 --> 00:32:21.634
Strand 3: Speaking and Writing
00:32:21.634 --> 00:32:24.674
Activation is really hard!
00:32:24.674 --> 00:32:29.624
Learning thousands of words does not mean
you'll be able to speak them.
00:32:29.624 --> 00:32:30.848
It doesn't happen magically.
00:32:30.848 --> 00:32:35.458
And polyglots are very good at feeling the fear and doing it anyway.
00:32:35.458 --> 00:32:37.832
This is a Benny type of thing here:
["Benny" = Benny Lewis, a well-known polyglot]
00:32:37.832 --> 00:32:40.052
Speak early; speak often!
00:32:40.052 --> 00:32:45.324
10 words is enough to have a good conversation.
00:32:45.324 --> 00:32:48.924
Thankfully for me!
[Laughter]
00:32:48.924 --> 00:32:56.484
2,000 words is considered a mature adult vocabulary
for colloquial conversations.
00:32:56.484 --> 00:32:58.201
You don't need 20,000.
00:32:58.201 --> 00:33:01.451
You might for reading literature, but not for talking.
00:33:01.451 --> 00:33:03.521
So how do you activate?
00:33:03.521 --> 00:33:06.041
You saw my big fat book there
on vocabulary,
00:33:06.041 --> 00:33:07.831
which is dull and boring.
00:33:07.831 --> 00:33:11.831
Here's my favourite book on activating.
00:33:11.831 --> 00:33:18.411
"How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately"
by Boris Shekhtman
00:33:18.411 --> 00:33:22.828
You can search on my name and
I've got a video about it.
00:33:22.828 --> 00:33:25.478
Why is that book so thin?!
00:33:25.478 --> 00:33:28.958
I want a fat book that... tells me how to activate!
00:33:28.958 --> 00:33:31.258
But there's very little research on this
00:33:31.258 --> 00:33:33.618
and one reason is thought to be
00:33:33.618 --> 00:33:34.508
that historically,
00:33:34.508 --> 00:33:39.008
language teaching is about
keeping the student quiet,
00:33:39.008 --> 00:33:41.818
so that they can focus on
what they're being taught.
00:33:41.818 --> 00:33:44.398
And there's a load of research
in teaching vocabulary,
00:33:44.398 --> 00:33:49.428
very little in the student
actually becoming active.
00:33:51.788 --> 00:33:53.660
Richard...
00:33:53.660 --> 00:33:56.852
[Laughter]
00:33:56.852 --> 00:34:00.822
Rehearsing at home helps!
00:34:00.822 --> 00:34:01.554
Just talk to yourself,
00:34:01.554 --> 00:34:03.634
make a fool of yourself,
laugh at yourself in the mirror.
00:34:03.634 --> 00:34:07.144
Actually, talking to yourself
in front of the mirror
00:34:07.144 --> 00:34:10.704
is one of the best ways
to get over the fear of talking in public,
00:34:10.704 --> 00:34:11.634
it turns out.
00:34:11.634 --> 00:34:13.694
Seeing another face.
00:34:13.694 --> 00:34:16.784
Looking yourself in the eye.
00:34:16.784 --> 00:34:17.965
OK.
00:34:17.965 --> 00:34:19.583
Self-talk
00:34:19.583 --> 00:34:22.923
Just repeating everything you see in your daily life
00:34:22.923 --> 00:34:26.943
and these are things
that polyNots do not do.
00:34:26.943 --> 00:34:30.310
Polyglots, it turns out,
often do these things
00:34:30.310 --> 00:34:32.070
without even realising
they're doing them.
00:34:32.070 --> 00:34:34.520
When they are studying vocabulary,
very often,
00:34:34.520 --> 00:34:36.050
automatically in the back of their head
00:34:36.050 --> 00:34:38.180
they'll be thinking of
how to apply the vocabulary
00:34:38.180 --> 00:34:39.460
and just using it automatically
00:34:39.460 --> 00:34:42.360
rather than thinking,
"I've just learned it."
00:34:42.360 --> 00:34:44.020
And this is
- perhaps the number one thing -
00:34:44.020 --> 00:34:46.710
is to summarize things.
00:34:46.710 --> 00:34:48.447
We've seen you can use 400 words
00:34:48.447 --> 00:34:51.037
to write Moby Dick
and these kinds of books.
00:34:51.037 --> 00:34:54.487
So you can use 400 words to summarize
pretty much anything.
00:34:54.487 --> 00:34:56.917
Simplify, simplify, simplify!
00:34:56.917 --> 00:35:00.647
Please practice,
to all the PolyNots out there,
00:35:00.647 --> 00:35:02.425
and just... do it.
00:35:02.425 --> 00:35:05.665
And this is another one, "Islands" mean...
00:35:05.665 --> 00:35:08.999
- this is from here -
something very important.
00:35:08.999 --> 00:35:10.929
And I'm not going to tell you
what it means.
00:35:10.929 --> 00:35:12.929
I want you to buy the book.
00:35:12.929 --> 00:35:15.959
That author deserves it.
00:35:15.959 --> 00:35:17.939
Ok, there you go.
00:35:17.939 --> 00:35:21.939
For writing, again, you only need 400 words
to write some pretty good stuff.
00:35:21.939 --> 00:35:25.049
You can write Phantom of the Opera.
00:35:25.049 --> 00:35:28.022
And then you keep elaborating
what you've written
00:35:28.022 --> 00:35:29.712
as your vocabulary grows.
00:35:29.712 --> 00:35:31.382
So you could write Phantom of the Opera
00:35:31.382 --> 00:35:32.793
with a 400-word vocabulary,
00:35:32.793 --> 00:35:33.963
and then come back to it
00:35:33.963 --> 00:35:36.433
and write a better version.
00:35:36.433 --> 00:35:38.363
This is what "islands" are about.
00:35:38.363 --> 00:35:42.345
Write loads of things;
keep elaborating them.
00:35:42.345 --> 00:35:44.655
Strand 4: Fluency Development
00:35:44.655 --> 00:35:46.455
Oh, what's "fluency"?
00:35:46.455 --> 00:35:49.375
I'm going to go with a really simple definition.
00:35:49.375 --> 00:35:51.485
Fluency is not a magical process
00:35:51.485 --> 00:35:53.135
of sounding like a native. No.
00:35:53.135 --> 00:35:55.995
Fluency is not about a big vocabulary.
00:35:55.995 --> 00:36:02.225
Fluency is about being quick,
and smooth, and in control...
00:36:02.225 --> 00:36:04.680
with what you already have.
00:36:04.680 --> 00:36:09.740
You can be fluent with your 10-word
vocabulary in conversations.
00:36:09.740 --> 00:36:12.770
And it's training for automaticity.
00:36:12.770 --> 00:36:14.170
People have asked me in the past,
00:36:14.170 --> 00:36:16.320
"How do you think in a foreign language?"
00:36:16.320 --> 00:36:17.810
And my answer is always:
00:36:17.810 --> 00:36:20.810
The aim is to learn not to think at all,
00:36:20.810 --> 00:36:24.306
for the words just to
come out automatically.
00:36:24.306 --> 00:36:31.326
Because, it's shown that thinking is
too slow for real life. [Laughter]
00:36:31.326 --> 00:36:35.539
And 4 practices have been shown as
essential to gaining fluency
00:36:35.539 --> 00:36:38.677
without needing to think
when you're having conversations.
00:36:38.677 --> 00:36:40.581
So the first one: Overlearning
00:36:40.581 --> 00:36:42.461
Learn and learn and learn and learn.
00:36:42.461 --> 00:36:44.911
Just because you know a word,
you don't know it.
00:36:44.911 --> 00:36:47.744
Keep hitting the word from different angles.
00:36:47.744 --> 00:36:49.524
It'll get deeper inside you.
00:36:49.524 --> 00:36:51.974
Do things at a higher speed
than you're comfortable with.
00:36:51.974 --> 00:36:54.014
PolyNots will listen to the radio
and think,
00:36:54.014 --> 00:36:56.044
"I can't understand it.
It's too quick."
00:36:56.044 --> 00:36:59.014
put it aside, and go back to something
really slow in the textbook.
00:36:59.014 --> 00:37:01.584
They never expose themselves
to the hard stuff.
00:37:01.584 --> 00:37:03.854
You need to.
00:37:05.191 --> 00:37:08.031
Do "time-boxed" reading and writing:
00:37:08.031 --> 00:37:10.611
"I'm going to read as much as I can
in five minutes".
00:37:10.611 --> 00:37:12.201
And you're going for speed.
00:37:12.201 --> 00:37:13.771
Speak. Speak quickly.
00:37:13.771 --> 00:37:15.611
And try not to make stupid errors,
00:37:15.611 --> 00:37:17.049
but mostly go for speed.
00:37:17.049 --> 00:37:17.839
And writing...
00:37:17.839 --> 00:37:20.809
Write an essay as long as you can
in five minutes.
00:37:20.809 --> 00:37:22.939
And these prepare you for real life,
00:37:22.939 --> 00:37:25.219
even though you're going to make mistakes.
00:37:25.219 --> 00:37:27.389
And then - another Benny thing -
00:37:27.389 --> 00:37:29.379
get out there in real life
00:37:29.379 --> 00:37:32.269
and have lots of real-life encounters.
00:37:32.269 --> 00:37:36.684
Because that is where all your theory
comes into practice
00:37:36.684 --> 00:37:38.722
and you realise you're tongue-tied.
00:37:38.722 --> 00:37:41.152
And the only way to not be tongue-tied
00:37:41.152 --> 00:37:43.082
is to get out there and do it.
00:37:43.082 --> 00:37:46.402
However, even gaining
automaticity with words,
00:37:46.402 --> 00:37:48.182
you're still not fast enough.
00:37:48.182 --> 00:37:50.262
Thinking's too slow.
00:37:50.262 --> 00:37:54.262
Automaticity with words is too slow.
00:37:54.262 --> 00:37:59.022
You need automaticity
with clusters of words.
00:37:59.022 --> 00:37:59.962
And it's been shown ...
00:37:59.962 --> 00:38:01.612
In other words, these are collocations
00:38:01.612 --> 00:38:02.972
I'm going to use this word
"collocations" to mean
00:38:02.972 --> 00:38:08.312
to mean "clusters of words
that tend to go together in real life".
00:38:08.312 --> 00:38:10.352
Because research has shown
00:38:10.352 --> 00:38:11.742
that in real-life speech
00:38:11.742 --> 00:38:14.642
- they've recorded native speakers, and so on -
00:38:14.642 --> 00:38:15.922
in authentic speech ...
00:38:15.922 --> 00:38:19.922
and found that they are speaking at rates
00:38:19.922 --> 00:38:21.212
faster than the ...
00:38:21.212 --> 00:38:24.782
[video skipped; see slide: "...brain could possibly recreate..."]
just building it on grammar and individual words.
00:38:24.782 --> 00:38:26.958
So you need to be able to say things like,
00:38:26.958 --> 00:38:33.768
"You need to be able to say things like".
[Laughter]
00:38:35.778 --> 00:38:38.175
But collocations are about far more
00:38:38.175 --> 00:38:39.565
than just speed.
00:38:39.565 --> 00:38:41.506
It's not just speed training.
00:38:41.506 --> 00:38:43.336
They deepen our understanding
00:38:43.336 --> 00:38:45.726
of the rich meanings of individual words.
00:38:45.726 --> 00:38:47.886
So, learning chunks
also teaches about individual words.
00:38:47.886 --> 00:38:50.806
For example, the word "cause".
00:38:50.806 --> 00:38:53.946
This is just a pretty
neutral-sounding word.
00:38:53.946 --> 00:38:56.356
Does "cause" sound positive,
or negative, or neutral?
00:38:56.356 --> 00:38:57.366
I'd say neutral.
00:38:57.366 --> 00:39:00.401
But, actually, it turns out it collocates
00:39:00.401 --> 00:39:02.391
with undesirable situations.
00:39:02.391 --> 00:39:04.971
You very rarely say,
"That causes happiness."
00:39:04.971 --> 00:39:06.331
But you would say, things like
00:39:06.331 --> 00:39:08.131
"Ooh, that causes concern."
00:39:08.131 --> 00:39:10.041
"He's causing trouble."
00:39:10.041 --> 00:39:11.854
"Oh, that's are real cause
for embarrassment."
00:39:11.854 --> 00:39:15.344
"Cause" tends to collocate
with negative stuff.
00:39:15.344 --> 00:39:19.344
So don't use it talking about
positive stuff so much.
00:39:19.344 --> 00:39:21.234
"Signal" - This is a good word.
00:39:21.234 --> 00:39:23.304
Who knows what "signal" means?
00:39:23.304 --> 00:39:27.304
Oh, nobody?
[Laughter]
00:39:27.304 --> 00:39:28.404
"Thank you for the signal."
00:39:28.404 --> 00:39:30.464
What does it mean?
00:39:30.464 --> 00:39:36.514
[muffled answer from the audience]
00:39:36.514 --> 00:39:39.916
"She sent the king a signal."
00:39:39.916 --> 00:39:43.326
A message! It's a noun, isn't it?
00:39:43.326 --> 00:39:46.966
"Then saw him signal back."
00:39:46.966 --> 00:39:49.886
Oh, it's a verb!
00:39:49.886 --> 00:39:51.486
Oh, I was wrong!
00:39:51.486 --> 00:39:53.196
Here's a very good one
00:39:53.196 --> 00:39:53.986
that you probably don't know
00:39:53.986 --> 00:39:55.456
unless you're a native speaker.
00:39:55.456 --> 00:39:57.726
"It was a signal honour."
00:39:57.726 --> 00:39:59.196
It's an adjective!
00:39:59.196 --> 00:40:02.996
It means "significant or important".
00:40:02.996 --> 00:40:05.036
And only by hitting the word
00:40:05.036 --> 00:40:07.106
through massive exposure in many contexts
00:40:07.106 --> 00:40:10.326
and understanding
the various meanings of things.
00:40:10.326 --> 00:40:13.184
Like, "signal honour" is a collocation
00:40:13.184 --> 00:40:14.574
you see all the time
00:40:14.574 --> 00:40:18.574
if you... read books about signal honours.
00:40:18.574 --> 00:40:22.514
[Laughter]
00:40:23.674 --> 00:40:28.304
And collocations are necessary
to sound authentic,
00:40:28.304 --> 00:40:30.414
because a great many things
00:40:30.414 --> 00:40:32.114
that are grammatically correct,
00:40:32.114 --> 00:40:35.874
even if you know
all the grammar and the vocabulary,
00:40:35.874 --> 00:40:37.621
well, we just don't say it that way!
00:40:37.621 --> 00:40:39.721
"I want some speedy food."
00:40:39.721 --> 00:40:40.851
"I've not got time,
00:40:40.851 --> 00:40:43.371
I'm gonna get some quick food for lunch."
00:40:43.371 --> 00:40:45.251
Why do they only say "fast food"?
00:40:45.251 --> 00:40:46.871
Because they do!
00:40:48.979 --> 00:40:54.339
And many collocations are grammatically incorrect,
00:40:54.339 --> 00:40:56.995
and you might not even realise it.
00:40:56.995 --> 00:40:58.415
"Go to bed."
00:40:58.415 --> 00:41:01.127
That's grammatically incorrect.
00:41:01.127 --> 00:41:05.761
You don't say, "Go to kitchen."
00:41:05.761 --> 00:41:08.781
It's "Go to the kitchen".
00:41:08.781 --> 00:41:10.151
Why isn't it "Go to the bed"?
00:41:10.151 --> 00:41:15.491
Because it isn't!
[Laughter and clapping]
00:41:15.491 --> 00:41:17.350
Some are just weird...
00:41:17.350 --> 00:41:18.750
"hell for leather"
00:41:18.750 --> 00:41:21.440
Who knows what that even means?
00:41:21.440 --> 00:41:24.300
It means "go fast".
00:41:24.300 --> 00:41:25.950
"He's running hell for leather."
00:41:25.950 --> 00:41:27.410
Quite a rare one,
00:41:27.410 --> 00:41:31.730
but you'll sound bloody authentic
if you use it!
00:41:31.730 --> 00:41:33.580
Plenty of them are fossilised...
00:41:33.580 --> 00:41:34.740
"by and large"
00:41:34.740 --> 00:41:37.900
You can't say "by and big".
[Laughter]
00:41:37.900 --> 00:41:38.780
"Law and order"
00:41:38.780 --> 00:41:39.890
"Bird's eye view"
00:41:39.890 --> 00:41:42.342
If you say "Ooh, let's take
a bird's eye look at this,"
00:41:42.342 --> 00:41:44.632
it won't quite sound the same will it?
00:41:44.632 --> 00:41:48.502
"raise an eyebrow" [Laughter]
00:41:48.502 --> 00:41:49.822
But if you say "lift an eyebrow"
00:41:49.822 --> 00:41:50.982
it means the same thing,
00:41:50.982 --> 00:41:53.757
but people will think you're a weirdo.
00:41:53.757 --> 00:41:55.817
That was a very good
eyebrow raising there.
00:41:55.817 --> 00:41:57.627
(Audience member) Thank you very much.
00:41:57.627 --> 00:42:01.077
He's got really good eyebrows.
00:42:01.077 --> 00:42:04.207
But as well as understanding fossilisation,
00:42:04.207 --> 00:42:06.720
these ones are the hardest ones
to deal with:
00:42:06.720 --> 00:42:08.670
Flexible collocations
00:42:08.670 --> 00:42:11.090
This is the real mark of authenticity.
00:42:11.090 --> 00:42:13.090
You can "entertain an idea".
00:42:13.090 --> 00:42:15.600
You can also "entertain a belief",
00:42:15.600 --> 00:42:17.560
a bit less frequently.
00:42:17.560 --> 00:42:19.430
Entertain a thought,
00:42:19.430 --> 00:42:21.260
a bit less frequent.
00:42:21.260 --> 00:42:23.600
You can say it.
00:42:23.600 --> 00:42:25.870
But these are all collations you'd see.
00:42:25.870 --> 00:42:28.380
And why are you saying "entertain"
related to these words??
00:42:28.380 --> 00:42:30.280
You're not doing a song or dance,
00:42:30.280 --> 00:42:32.560
but it's what people say.
00:42:32.560 --> 00:42:35.390
Now, polyglots, then, actually focus
00:42:35.390 --> 00:42:38.050
and favour, often without realising it
00:42:38.050 --> 00:42:40.120
high-frequency collocations
00:42:40.120 --> 00:42:43.150
over low-frequency words.
00:42:43.150 --> 00:42:46.020
Don't bother learning
the rare names of fish
00:42:46.020 --> 00:42:47.150
when you can learn things like
00:42:47.150 --> 00:42:48.730
"raise an eyebrow".
00:42:48.730 --> 00:42:49.560
This is important,
00:42:49.560 --> 00:42:51.370
because research has shown repeatedly,
00:42:51.370 --> 00:42:53.970
over about thirty years of research,
00:42:53.970 --> 00:42:57.970
the greatest increases
in fluency and authenticity
00:42:57.970 --> 00:43:00.390
come when learners switch their focus
00:43:00.390 --> 00:43:02.354
from yet more low-frequency words
00:43:02.354 --> 00:43:05.264
to automaticity of
high-frequency collocations.
00:43:05.264 --> 00:43:07.494
And again, polyglots seems to know this
00:43:07.494 --> 00:43:08.774
and do it automatically.
00:43:08.774 --> 00:43:12.544
PolyNots don't.
They add more words to Anki.
00:43:12.544 --> 00:43:15.334
In short, more than 30 years of research
00:43:15.334 --> 00:43:17.874
tells us that native speakers know
00:43:17.874 --> 00:43:20.834
around 20,000 individual words
00:43:20.834 --> 00:43:23.574
but several hundred thousand collocations.
00:43:23.574 --> 00:43:24.634
Can you believe it?
00:43:24.634 --> 00:43:27.144
That's what they're doing
all the rest of the time.
00:43:27.144 --> 00:43:28.884
That's what their
24-hours-a-day exposure
00:43:28.884 --> 00:43:30.814
for their whole adult life
is teaching them.
00:43:30.814 --> 00:43:32.704
Not more vocabulary, but richer, deeper
00:43:32.704 --> 00:43:35.784
meaning in collocations.
00:43:35.784 --> 00:43:37.524
So, to be highly functional in a language,
00:43:37.524 --> 00:43:38.804
whatever that means,
00:43:38.804 --> 00:43:40.184
a learner needs to have
00:43:40.184 --> 00:43:42.964
gained automaticity with about
00:43:42.964 --> 00:43:45.894
4.000 general high-frequency words,
00:43:45.894 --> 00:43:49.894
2,000 specialist words
in whatever their area is,
00:43:49.894 --> 00:43:53.674
and tens of thousands
of high-frequency collocations.
00:43:53.674 --> 00:43:56.374
And this is what reading
all that literature is doing,
00:43:56.374 --> 00:43:59.374
listening to all those materials is doing.
00:43:59.374 --> 00:44:02.280
And then continually enriching
through exposure
00:44:02.280 --> 00:44:08.050
the breadth and depth of their knowledge
of all that stuff.
00:44:08.050 --> 00:44:11.296
There you go, through life-long exposure.
00:44:11.296 --> 00:44:14.726
And the key to achieving all this
00:44:14.726 --> 00:44:17.266
is to be able to ...
00:44:17.266 --> 00:44:19.986
Guess!
00:44:19.986 --> 00:44:21.796
That's it!
00:44:21.796 --> 00:44:27.596
(applause from the audience)
00:44:27.596 --> 00:44:33.746
(cheers from the audience)
00:44:33.746 --> 00:44:36.746
I'm afraid there's no time for questions.
00:44:36.746 --> 00:44:44.912
(applause and cheers from the audience)
00:44:44.912 --> 00:44:54.992
(continuing applause)
00:44:54.992 --> 00:45:01.772
More!
[Laughter]
00:45:01.772 --> 00:45:04.400
I can't hear my wife clapping!
[Laughter]
00:45:04.400 --> 00:45:05.980
(Richard) I don't think there's going to be any questions.
00:45:05.980 --> 00:45:12.280
I don't think that was a very popular speech, to be honest.
[Laughter]
00:45:12.280 --> 00:45:18.130
(Richard) Fantastic! I've just realised that I'm a polynot.
[Laughter]
00:45:18.130 --> 00:45:21.118
I'd never have guessed!
00:45:21.118 --> 00:45:23.678
(Richard) And proud!
00:45:23.678 --> 00:45:26.228
So, no, thank you very much.
00:45:26.228 --> 00:45:29.758
I've got to say, just in preface to this,
00:45:29.758 --> 00:45:31.948
we're friends on Facebook
00:45:31.948 --> 00:45:35.948
(Anthony) Oh no! Don't tell them about my Facebook posts, please!
00:45:35.948 --> 00:45:38.368
I'm keeping everything secret.
00:45:38.368 --> 00:45:40.108
But I did see one post saying
00:45:40.108 --> 00:45:43.836
"I've got three hundred and twenty slides"
00:45:43.836 --> 00:45:46.766
(Anthony) "[unclear] ... and I'm only half way through!"
00:45:46.766 --> 00:45:47.346
And I just thought...
00:45:47.346 --> 00:45:51.216
"Oh my God. What the hell is he going to talk about?"
00:45:51.216 --> 00:45:52.726
(Anthony) So I trimmed it right back down to
00:45:52.726 --> 00:45:55.746
the bare minimum of 262.
00:45:55.746 --> 00:45:58.409
So, um, yeah, imagine my relief
00:45:58.409 --> 00:46:03.629
when I saw it was just 262.
[Laughter]
00:46:03.629 --> 00:46:05.328
So, I didn't see any of this before
00:46:05.328 --> 00:46:06.528
you saw it today.
00:46:06.528 --> 00:46:08.858
It's all new to me too.
00:46:08.858 --> 00:46:11.633
So, I'm looking forward to questions.
00:46:11.633 --> 00:46:13.003
I'll start at the front.
00:46:13.003 --> 00:46:15.013
Less for me to walk.
00:46:15.013 --> 00:46:17.353
(Q1) First of all, Anthony, that was fabulous.
00:46:17.353 --> 00:46:19.193
- That was absolutely fabulous.
- Thank you.
00:46:19.193 --> 00:46:22.293
Second of all, I just wanted to add maybe,
00:46:22.293 --> 00:46:23.883
I have a comment more than a question.
00:46:23.883 --> 00:46:28.943
just... Mezzofanti and Emil Krebs both
00:46:28.943 --> 00:46:32.313
did a lot of this stuff through parallel texts.
00:46:32.313 --> 00:46:33.753
When Emil Krebs died,
00:46:33.753 --> 00:46:38.463
they found a gazillion different copies
of the New Testament in his chambers.
00:46:38.463 --> 00:46:42.463
And it is said that Mezzofanti also learned different languages
00:46:42.463 --> 00:46:47.073
through these chunks, these collocations as you're talking about.
00:46:47.073 --> 00:46:50.283
He would perform the last rites and hear confessions
00:46:50.283 --> 00:46:53.133
from soldiers from all over the world.
00:46:53.133 --> 00:46:58.743
- Anyway, it sounds like it was good research.
- Thank you.
00:47:00.628 --> 00:47:01.688
(Q2) Hello, Anthony.
00:47:01.688 --> 00:47:03.778
First of all, I want to say thank you for your presentation.
00:47:03.778 --> 00:47:07.257
You were one of the first people that I encountered on YouTube, when I
00:47:07.257 --> 00:47:12.393
- you know - first started to learn languages, and you provided me with some inspiration.
00:47:12.393 --> 00:47:15.259
And so, I'm interested in... I can relate to your experience
00:47:15.259 --> 00:47:18.369
because I believe that when I,... my first encounter with langauge learning
00:47:18.369 --> 00:47:20.305
was when I was at school trying to learn German
00:47:20.305 --> 00:47:24.809
and I believed I had absolutely no talent whatsoever.
00:47:24.809 --> 00:47:30.567
And, I've made significant progress with my Spanish.
00:47:30.567 --> 00:47:32.276
And now I'm living in Madrid.
00:47:32.276 --> 00:47:34.907
I want to hear about your experience
00:47:34.907 --> 00:47:39.387
going from or being a "polynot", as you describe it,
00:47:39.387 --> 00:47:41.667
and - you know - how your process of learning languages has changed,
00:47:41.667 --> 00:47:44.527
and do you feel that you have grown as a language learner
00:47:44.527 --> 00:47:50.357
and that - you know - there's potential for you to become a polyglot one day?
00:47:50.357 --> 00:47:52.362
Um, ok.
00:47:52.362 --> 00:47:54.582
I'm an old man.
00:47:54.582 --> 00:47:58.342
Now, you are supposed to say "Noooo..."
00:47:58.342 --> 00:48:00.139
[Laughter]
00:48:00.139 --> 00:48:04.819
Huh! Thanks!
00:48:04.819 --> 00:48:06.659
Um, yeah.
00:48:06.659 --> 00:48:09.269
I have a twin brother.
00:48:09.269 --> 00:48:13.675
And he saw a very beautiful woman around 18 years old working in a pub.
00:48:13.675 --> 00:48:17.675
And he was speaking to this young woman and flirting a bit and she was flirting back.
00:48:17.675 --> 00:48:22.325
And it hit him. She could be my granddaughter.
00:48:22.325 --> 00:48:26.325
And he said, "Do I seem like a dirty old man to you?"
00:48:26.325 --> 00:48:30.325
And she said, "Yes, but you're a customer so I've got to be nice."
00:48:30.325 --> 00:48:32.685
[Laughter]
00:48:32.685 --> 00:48:33.945
Yeah. And, um...
00:48:33.945 --> 00:48:37.825
I feel a little bit like that with language learning in a way. That...
00:48:37.825 --> 00:48:42.975
I'm sort of the dirty pervert, the peeping tom,
looking at all you people
00:48:42.975 --> 00:48:46.919
and enjoying it vicariously. There's a good word.
00:48:46.919 --> 00:48:51.319
But I think I'm getting a little bit better in language learning,
00:48:51.319 --> 00:48:55.129
mainly through learning to be patient.
00:48:55.129 --> 00:48:58.474
But I think I'm too old to ever be fantastic.
00:48:58.474 --> 00:49:01.904
I recently saw some videos by a man who,
00:49:01.904 --> 00:49:07.134
I won't name him, but you may know who he is because of what I'm about to say.
00:49:07.134 --> 00:49:11.559
And he had a list of something like 80 languages he wants to learn in the next 10 or 20 years.
00:49:11.559 --> 00:49:14.423
And he said, "I realise that's unrealistic.
00:49:14.423 --> 00:49:20.173
I've trimmed it down to 72." [Laughter]
00:49:21.628 --> 00:49:23.528
It's great to be ambitious.
00:49:23.528 --> 00:49:26.548
But I don't have time to be ambitious.
00:49:26.548 --> 00:49:29.618
So, I am reasonably good in Czech now
00:49:29.618 --> 00:49:32.538
so that I'm not studying it anymore
and I can just live the language.
00:49:32.538 --> 00:49:35.368
And I do study a several other languages
00:49:35.368 --> 00:49:39.028
and if I can get anywhere with them before I die, I'll be happy,
00:49:39.028 --> 00:49:45.128
because now I'm enjoying the journey, not just focusing on the destination.
00:49:45.128 --> 00:49:46.182
Yeah, that's it.
00:49:46.182 --> 00:49:48.082
- (Q3) Hello.
- Who's that?
00:49:48.082 --> 00:49:49.732
(Unlear) Iversen and I'm
00:49:49.732 --> 00:49:58.652
And I'm so probably your best example of [... unclear ...] gone mad.
00:49:58.652 --> 00:50:01.532
Because you may know that I have made word lists
00:50:01.532 --> 00:50:07.032
that I've made about... I've counted how many Russian words I've printed on word lists
00:50:07.032 --> 00:50:11.582
since I started my holiday, 14 days ago, that's about 1500.
00:50:11.582 --> 00:50:14.949
But, I have the idea.
00:50:14.949 --> 00:50:18.079
I think that I know what I am now. I'm not a polyglot.
00:50:18.079 --> 00:50:21.069
I'm a polynot, but in 12 different languages.
00:50:21.069 --> 00:50:27.399
- Yeah.
- Because everything I see hear and read, I forget.
00:50:27.399 --> 00:50:31.519
But I note it down.
And once I've written it down, I remember it.
00:50:31.519 --> 00:50:33.899
And that's why I write all my words down,
00:50:33.899 --> 00:50:36.179
because then I can start guessing.
00:50:36.179 --> 00:50:38.796
And I can't start guessing just because
00:50:38.796 --> 00:50:42.636
I really learned one thing from all your, what was it, 200
00:50:42.636 --> 00:50:46.636
slides, and that was the word polynot.
00:50:46.636 --> 00:50:50.636
[...unclear...] but that's enough.
00:50:50.636 --> 00:50:53.466
Have you thought about different ways
00:50:53.466 --> 00:50:56.366
of getting to the guessing stage...
00:50:56.366 --> 00:51:01.956
apart from being a born polyglot or somebody who works through paper like me.
00:51:01.956 --> 00:51:07.846
But for instance, people who live in places where they have to guess
00:51:07.846 --> 00:51:11.566
because they never know what the next person is going to say to them.
00:51:11.566 --> 00:51:12.996
India, places like that.
00:51:12.996 --> 00:51:16.996
What do they do in a situation where they cannot read,
00:51:16.996 --> 00:51:20.996
they cannot write everything down, and they are not polyglots?
00:51:20.996 --> 00:51:26.276
Yeah. So, I have... sometimes people say,
00:51:26.289 --> 00:51:31.369
on these forums they say, "What language should I learn next?"
00:51:31.369 --> 00:51:33.494
How do I know?!
00:51:33.494 --> 00:51:36.054
The two reasons to learn a language are
00:51:36.054 --> 00:51:37.594
because you have to,
00:51:37.594 --> 00:51:42.424
which provides masses of external force on you to do it,
00:51:42.424 --> 00:51:44.394
or because you want to,
00:51:44.394 --> 00:51:48.604
which provides lots of internal force on you to do it.
00:51:48.604 --> 00:51:52.604
And I think with those pressures, internal and external,
00:51:52.604 --> 00:51:54.404
you'll find a way.
00:51:54.404 --> 00:51:56.874
But when you're at school,
00:51:56.874 --> 00:51:58.284
and somebody's telling you,
00:51:58.284 --> 00:52:00.044
"Now you're learning German."
00:52:00.044 --> 00:52:04.044
There's no actual need.
00:52:04.044 --> 00:52:07.354
So I don't think the automatic - all the antennas are up
00:52:07.354 --> 00:52:11.354
and your guessing abilities will become automatic - will be there.
00:52:11.354 --> 00:52:12.564
Now,
00:52:12.564 --> 00:52:16.511
I am no expert in all this... in this guessing game.
00:52:16.511 --> 00:52:20.691
So you asked what are the different ways of being good at guessing. And I can't guess.
00:52:20.691 --> 00:52:24.557
I don't know. I got most of what I talked about,
00:52:24.557 --> 00:52:29.537
especially the jokes, from this boring textbook.
00:52:29.537 --> 00:52:31.947
But now that I know that guessing is important
00:52:31.947 --> 00:52:34.797
- and I think it's a pretty convincing argument -
00:52:34.797 --> 00:52:39.417
the next stage for me is, how can I transform myself into a good guesser.
00:52:39.417 --> 00:52:40.550
And I don't know.
00:52:40.550 --> 00:52:42.510
If I come to another conference, hopefully I will.
00:52:42.510 --> 00:52:44.730
Maybe I'll be able to give a presentation
00:52:44.730 --> 00:52:50.520
on how a useless guesser became a good guesser in a year.
00:52:50.520 --> 00:52:56.562
[Applause]
00:52:57.549 --> 00:52:59.409
(Q4) Hi. Um...
00:52:59.409 --> 00:53:03.362
I suspect many people may know the answer to this question in the room,
00:53:03.362 --> 00:53:08.762
but I'm curious about how do you quantify how many words you're fluent in.
00:53:08.762 --> 00:53:10.392
You speak about 2000, 4000...
00:53:10.392 --> 00:53:14.742
I have no idea what my vocabulary is even in my native language.
00:53:14.742 --> 00:53:16.072
One very interesting thing is,
00:53:16.072 --> 00:53:17.972
there were a lot of studies
00:53:17.972 --> 00:53:20.972
in the 80s and before that
00:53:20.972 --> 00:53:24.194
about people's vocabulary knowledge.
00:53:24.194 --> 00:53:25.954
And that's because, as I said,
00:53:25.954 --> 00:53:29.254
the main aim of languages then
00:53:29.254 --> 00:53:31.864
was about language teaching
and language testing
00:53:31.864 --> 00:53:33.804
rather than language using.
00:53:33.804 --> 00:53:36.744
And they constantly invented tests
00:53:36.744 --> 00:53:39.864
for judging people's vocabulary.
00:53:39.864 --> 00:53:42.444
And, I think it was as late as 1980,
00:53:42.444 --> 00:53:46.444
it was estimated that native speakers at an adult level
00:53:46.444 --> 00:53:50.444
would have a rich vocabulary of around 90,000 words.
00:53:50.444 --> 00:53:54.444
And now that's realised that's a massive overestimate.
00:53:54.444 --> 00:53:59.334
And the tests of vocabulary have become much much much better.
00:53:59.334 --> 00:54:01.493
So that now they estimate it's 20,000.
00:54:01.493 --> 00:54:05.083
And the way they have tested it,
00:54:05.083 --> 00:54:08.793
is by applying lots and lots and lots and lots
of different tests
00:54:08.793 --> 00:54:12.553
to find tests that give consistent results.
00:54:12.553 --> 00:54:13.608
Know what I mean?
00:54:13.608 --> 00:54:17.008
So, and then that tells them what the good tests are
00:54:17.008 --> 00:54:19.208
and gives them confidence that their measures are correct.
00:54:19.208 --> 00:54:22.338
And so there are actually papers that test things,
00:54:22.338 --> 00:54:25.438
they show you a shape and say,
00:54:25.438 --> 00:54:30.808
"If this one is smaller than this, then the other one is ...."
00:54:30.808 --> 00:54:33.919
...bigger. Or something like that.
00:54:33.919 --> 00:54:37.609
And I would put "shoe lace". I don't know.
00:54:37.609 --> 00:54:39.779
So, but, there were many many tests, and
00:54:39.779 --> 00:54:41.089
in the back of that book
00:54:41.089 --> 00:54:43.479
it actually has a couple of sample tests
00:54:43.479 --> 00:54:46.629
and refers to loads and loads and loads of others.
00:54:46.629 --> 00:54:53.619
So there were people whose whole career is working out good tests, yeah.
00:54:53.619 --> 00:54:57.636
- (Q5) Um, I was wondering what is the
- Who is that?
00:54:57.636 --> 00:55:00.739
- I was wondering what's the title of that thin book that you recommend
00:55:00.739 --> 00:55:03.329
because I didn't get it when you were talking about it.
00:55:03.329 --> 00:55:07.329
Yeah. It's called "How to Improve..."
00:55:07.329 --> 00:55:09.979
Now, the polyglots will remember this title
00:55:09.979 --> 00:55:15.959
and the polynots will have forgotten the first word already,
[Laughter]
00:55:15.959 --> 00:55:20.699
"How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately"
00:55:20.699 --> 00:55:24.963
by Boris Shekhtman. It costs around $10.
00:55:24.963 --> 00:55:28.963
The guy, actually, um...
00:55:28.963 --> 00:55:32.653
is Russian by birth. And he was
00:55:32.653 --> 00:55:35.173
employed by the Foreign Service Institute
00:55:35.173 --> 00:55:37.403
to teach Russian.
00:55:37.403 --> 00:55:40.240
He was the head of teaching Russian
00:55:40.240 --> 00:55:43.390
for diplomats in the US.
00:55:43.390 --> 00:55:45.610
And he taught there for many many many years.
00:55:45.610 --> 00:55:49.610
And he realised that certain practices
00:55:49.610 --> 00:55:52.940
were common to the students that were doing the best.
00:55:52.940 --> 00:55:55.280
And so, when he left the FSI,
00:55:55.280 --> 00:55:56.910
he made his own company
00:55:56.910 --> 00:55:58.290
teaching some of these practices.
00:55:58.290 --> 00:56:01.686
And the main part of it is activating vocabulary:
00:56:01.686 --> 00:56:04.076
how to get passive knowledge into active knowledge.
00:56:04.076 --> 00:56:05.186
And this book,
00:56:05.186 --> 00:56:07.216
there's actually a second edition,
00:56:07.216 --> 00:56:10.066
which apparently has a few more wisdoms in it
00:56:10.066 --> 00:56:13.126
- I don't have that - um...
00:56:13.126 --> 00:56:14.460
But this captures
00:56:14.460 --> 00:56:16.250
practices that you can do
00:56:16.250 --> 00:56:18.370
on your own or with a friend or with a teacher
00:56:18.370 --> 00:56:19.980
on how to activate vocabulary.
00:56:19.980 --> 00:56:22.600
So, "How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately".
00:56:22.600 --> 00:56:26.600
Please buy it and support him.
00:56:26.600 --> 00:56:30.600
I learned of him, by the way, from...
00:56:30.600 --> 00:56:34.600
what's his name? Harold...
00:56:34.600 --> 00:56:36.670
who did the Chinese
00:56:36.670 --> 00:56:38.220
- course.
- for Michel Thomas.
00:56:38.220 --> 00:56:39.100
Michel Thomas Chinese course.
00:56:39.100 --> 00:56:41.160
- Goodman. Harold Goodman.
- Harold Goodman. Yeah.
00:56:41.160 --> 00:56:42.870
So he liked some of my videos
00:56:42.870 --> 00:56:44.790
and said, "Oh, I like your videos."
Blah, blah, blah...
00:56:44.790 --> 00:56:47.920
And started... so I had some email exchanges with him.
00:56:47.920 --> 00:56:53.050
And, he was taught languages first by Michel Thomas,
00:56:53.050 --> 00:56:57.050
and said "Michel Thomas died, so I needed a new teacher."
00:56:57.050 --> 00:56:59.860
And he searched high and low and he found Boris Shekhtman,
00:56:59.860 --> 00:57:03.590
and he said, "This guy is phenomenal."
00:57:03.590 --> 00:57:05.180
That got me into buying that book.
00:57:05.180 --> 00:57:07.230
And I agree.
00:57:07.230 --> 00:57:12.015
- Yeah.
- (Q6) Hi. So, going back to 'seppe Peano,
00:57:12.015 --> 00:57:13.215
my question is
00:57:13.215 --> 00:57:18.795
which is the influence
of the Axiomatic Theory of 'seppe Peano
00:57:18.795 --> 00:57:21.485
on the Axiomatic...
00:57:21.485 --> 00:57:24.785
No, just joking.
00:57:24.785 --> 00:57:30.622
- That's a very interesting question because...
- 'seppe Peano invented... No, I'm not finished.
00:57:30.622 --> 00:57:33.542
'seppe Peano invented a language you know....