Polyglot Conference Budapest 2013 - Anthony Lauder "PolyNot"
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0:08 - 0:14This T-shirt represents everything I'm going to say today.
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0:14 - 0:15Can you see the shirt?
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0:15 - 0:17Even at the back?
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0:17 - 0:21It's actually, it's a match, which is here on fire,
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0:21 - 0:23and there it's completely burned up.
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0:23 - 0:26and this represents language learning for me.
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0:26 - 0:28because when I study languages,
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0:28 - 0:31I'm enthusiastic and energetic,
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0:31 - 0:34then I feel like I'm on fire and burning and dying,
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0:34 - 0:37and I end up frazzled and at the end I have to lie down.
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0:37 - 0:41Whereas Richard, I heard him say that it's the opposite way around for him.
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0:41 - 0:43He comes home after a hard day's work
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0:43 - 0:46"Well, I feel on fire! I'm completely alive!"
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0:46 - 0:50And at the end of hard session, he's reinvigorated.
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0:50 - 0:54So, I want my language learning
to stop being like that -
0:54 - 0:56and to be more like that.
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0:56 - 0:57And I've always been fascinated
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0:57 - 0:59with this difference,
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0:59 - 1:03why some people frazzle at the end
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1:03 - 1:05and some people get energised.
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1:05 - 1:10OK. So my presentation touches a bit on that.
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1:13 - 1:16I have to be ambidextrous
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1:17 - 1:19which I'm not.
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1:19 - 1:24So, the number 262 is important
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1:24 - 1:28because that's how many slides I've got.
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1:28 - 1:31[Laughter]
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1:31 - 1:32Yeah.
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1:33 - 1:37Oops! Sorry. It's not doing anything.
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1:37 - 1:39[Audience member] - Try again!
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1:39 - 1:41No.
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1:41 - 1:44Yeah, all my slides say 262.
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1:44 - 1:47[Laughter]
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1:49 - 1:50Oh, is it up here?
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1:50 - 1:53Where does it point?
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1:53 - 1:57Oh, I was pressing the wrong button. OK.
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1:58 - 2:01I'm not good at technical stuff.
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2:01 - 2:05Yeah. And that's about how many minutes
I've got to do it. -
2:05 - 2:08So, if you're good at numbers. That's a lot of slides.
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2:08 - 2:10So I'll be talking quickly.
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2:10 - 2:13Anthony Lauder.
That's me. -
2:13 - 2:17Who?? Never heard of him.
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2:17 - 2:22I'm the only person here that I've never heard of.
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2:22 - 2:25This is a polyglot conference.
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2:25 - 2:27Polyglots? What? Why am I here?
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2:27 - 2:28[Laughter]
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2:28 - 2:30I'm a "polyNot".
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2:30 - 2:33I am useless at languages.
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2:34 - 2:37My cats are better polyglots than me.
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2:37 - 2:40If I say "food", they come running.
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2:40 - 2:44If I say "tickle", they roll on their backs.
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2:44 - 2:48If they say "Miaow",
I've got no idea what they're saying at all. -
2:48 - 2:51[Laughter]
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2:52 - 2:55I'm good at mathematics. OK?
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2:55 - 2:59So, you shouldn't invite me
to a conference to talk about languages. -
2:59 - 3:04Instead, I'm going to talk about
the Peano Axioms, -
3:04 - 3:10which were formulated by Giuseppe Peano
in 1889. -
3:10 - 3:13And the Peano Axioms, as you probably know,
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3:13 - 3:16[Laughter]
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3:16 - 3:20are the product of meta-mathematical research
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3:20 - 3:25into fundamental questions of consistency and completeness in number theory.
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3:25 - 3:31And specifically they state that all natural numbers are closed,
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3:31 - 3:36under an injective and non-zero successor function. Yeah?
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3:36 - 3:40And a reflexive, symmetric, transitive equality func...
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3:40 - 3:43Zzzzzzz [snoring]
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3:43 - 3:44[Laughter]
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3:44 - 3:47Sorry.
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3:47 - 3:49In other words...
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3:49 - 3:50[Audience Member] It was interesting!
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3:50 - 3:53Yeah, thank you.
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3:53 - 3:56Think... This is what it's saying in real English.
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3:56 - 3:58Think of a number.
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3:58 - 4:0241
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4:02 - 4:04Add one to it
and what do you get? -
4:04 - 4:1042
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4:10 - 4:13Brilliant. So, you're good at mathematics.
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4:13 - 4:15You can apply Peano's axioms
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4:15 - 4:17Because that's all they say.
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4:17 - 4:18You get another number.
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4:18 - 4:20And you can keep going.
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4:20 - 4:2541 plus 1 is 42 and if you add one again
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4:25 - 4:31you don't get 42, you get... 43.
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4:31 - 4:33Is it?
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4:33 - 4:35And you can keep going and going...
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4:35 - 4:37And this "Add 1" is all you need.
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4:37 - 4:42You can count to all the numbers in the universe, and beyond.
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4:42 - 4:44And what's the lesson from this?
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4:44 - 4:48When you're good at adding one,
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4:48 - 4:51numbers become really easy.
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4:51 - 4:52Great.
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4:52 - 4:54When you're bad at adding 1,
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4:54 - 5:00numbers are very hard.
[Laughter] -
5:00 - 5:05So, how does this relate to polyglottery?
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5:05 - 5:08Well, it actually does.
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5:08 - 5:12I'm going to take my sandals off,
because they're slipping around a bit. -
5:12 - 5:18So, if you can smell anything bad,
it's Richard, it's not me. -
5:18 - 5:21I'm using Peano Axioms to understand
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5:21 - 5:25the easiest way to be able to speak 10 foreign languages.
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5:25 - 5:26I see on the forums,
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5:26 - 5:27people always want to know what's the easiest way,
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5:27 - 5:31what's the quickest way, what's the best method.
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5:31 - 5:32I'm going to tell you now
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5:32 - 5:34with my strong mathematical background
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5:34 - 5:36- I have a PhD in Theoretical Computer Science.
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5:36 - 5:37I'm really good at this kinda stuff. -
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5:37 - 5:39And I'm gonna tell you how, using that,
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5:39 - 5:44to be good at speaking 10 foreign languages.
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5:44 - 5:46Are you ready?
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5:46 - 5:48Step 1...
[Audience laughter] -
5:48 - 5:56[applause]
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6:00 - 6:03It's really easy. It's a 2 step plan.
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6:03 - 6:05Who could ask for more?
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6:05 - 6:09So, which is the hardest of those two steps?
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6:09 - 6:12I think it's probably step 1 is the hardest, yeah?
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6:12 - 6:16But once you've done that,
it's much easier to add one more. -
6:16 - 6:19OK. And how do you do that?
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6:20 - 6:22The way to be able to speak 9 languages is,
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6:22 - 6:26because that was the hard bit, is
speak 8 and add 1. -
6:26 - 6:28And you can keep going.
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6:28 - 6:31And the hardest step is always step 1.
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6:31 - 6:35And then adding one is easy...
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6:36 - 6:40until you get here.
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6:40 - 6:42Now step 2 is the hard one.
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6:42 - 6:44[Audience laughter]
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6:44 - 6:45Yeah?
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6:46 - 6:47And this is important!
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6:48 - 6:54Because for mega-polyglots, adding 1 is really easy.
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6:54 - 6:57But for people like me, "polyNots",
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6:57 - 7:00adding 1 is really hard.
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7:00 - 7:04And my speech is going to be about why.
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7:05 - 7:07Yeah, this is the big question.
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7:07 - 7:12Literally. It's a big question.
[Audience laughter] -
7:12 - 7:14[Applause]
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7:14 - 7:16So, I don't know the answer!
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7:16 - 7:18I don't know anything about languages,
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7:18 - 7:20so I decided to do some research.
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7:20 - 7:23And I looked into Applied Linguistics,
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7:23 - 7:24and I found out that
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7:24 - 7:26Applied Linguistics is the branch of linguistics
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7:26 - 7:30that's actually useful to people who aren't linguists.
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7:30 - 7:36[laughter & applause]
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7:36 - 7:39So, the other advantage of this is
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7:39 - 7:44anything I say here might be nonsense
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7:45 - 7:46but all I have to do is
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7:46 - 7:48- like English newspapers when they are about to say
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7:48 - 7:51"That guy is a lying idiot" -
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7:51 - 7:53they just put the word "allegedly"
at the beginning -
7:53 - 7:55and don't have to worry about it.
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7:55 - 7:59So allegedly, this is how to be good at adding one.
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8:00 - 8:03So, applied linguistics isn't about theories.
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8:03 - 8:06It's not some people just thinking up
something that "sounds good". -
8:06 - 8:08Instead they do experiments in real life,
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8:08 - 8:10find results, and publish the results.
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8:10 - 8:14It's based on lots of evidence over decades.
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8:14 - 8:18I've read mountains of papers
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8:18 - 8:22and one great book.
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8:22 - 8:24This great book.
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8:24 - 8:27It's big and it's fat
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8:27 - 8:33and it's boring as hell.
[Laughter] -
8:35 - 8:39But it's really good, if you don't mind being bored.
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8:39 - 8:41But it teaches a lot.
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8:41 - 8:48It actually surveys in great detail
600 research studies. -
8:48 - 8:52And it finds,
if you wade through all that, -
8:52 - 8:57that the main difference between
Polyglots and PolyNots - like me - -
8:57 - 8:59- so people like him, and people like me -
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8:59 - 9:03is... polyglots are good at...
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9:03 - 9:07[crowd makes inaudible suggestions]
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9:07 - 9:10guessing.
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9:10 - 9:13[Crowd laughs]
Who got that then? Ha! -
9:13 - 9:17I bet Richard did!
Okay... -
9:20 - 9:24And it turns out,
the reason they're good at guessing, -
9:24 - 9:26- Now don't say nonsense yet, just bear with me -
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9:26 - 9:30is because they have better memories.
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9:30 - 9:34Now you'll say
"No, my memory is no better than anybody else's." -
9:34 - 9:36And it might be true,
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9:36 - 9:38because polyglots do not have
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9:38 - 9:42better long term memory
than mere mortals. -
9:42 - 9:46[Laughing]
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9:46 - 9:51But they do have better short-term memories.
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9:52 - 9:55There's some geeky words here, for linguists only,
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9:55 - 9:57so I hope you can't read them.
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9:57 - 10:00It's qualifying it
in case there are any linguists here. -
10:00 - 10:02Short-term memories is good enough.
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10:02 - 10:06Polyglots can remember things for a few seconds,
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10:06 - 10:10and PolyNots forget them immediately.
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10:11 - 10:16Did I say this yet?
[Laughter] -
10:20 - 10:24It's "in one ear and out the other",
literally. -
10:24 - 10:28So why is short term memory important?
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10:28 - 10:29Why does it matter?
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10:29 - 10:31You know, we learn all these things about
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10:31 - 10:34how to remember words years down the line,
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10:34 - 10:35but why is it important
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10:35 - 10:38to remember something
for 5 seconds or 10 seconds? -
10:38 - 10:42Well, it turns out that
short-term memory is essential to, -
10:42 - 10:46it supports,
3 very important language skills. -
10:46 - 10:47And those are
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10:47 - 10:50noticing things,
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10:50 - 10:52processing things, and
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10:52 - 10:53guessing things.
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10:53 - 10:57I'm gonna get into these in great detail.
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10:57 - 10:59So, without those three skills,
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10:59 - 11:04you can't use the methods that polyglots use.
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11:04 - 11:08And polyNots struggle with language learning because
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11:08 - 11:11they lack the three skills of...
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11:11 - 11:14What were they?
[Laughter] -
11:14 - 11:16noticing, processing and guessing.
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11:16 - 11:20And that's great news for polyglots
and bad news for polyNots. -
11:20 - 11:28Therefore,
the road from polyNottery to polyglottery -
11:28 - 11:32is a process of
developing a better short term memory. -
11:32 - 11:37And then you can train in the skills of
noticing, processing and guessing. -
11:37 - 11:41And from that, you can apply the methods
that polyglots use. -
11:41 - 11:45If you try to apply them
without having those skills, -
11:45 - 11:47you're gonna burn up.
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11:47 - 11:53OK. Now, interestingly, this process
is iterative and bidirectional. -
11:53 - 11:54Oooh, whatever that means.
[Laughter] -
11:54 - 11:56What it actually means is
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11:56 - 11:58the more you improve your memory,
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11:58 - 12:03the better your skills in processing,
and so on, and guessing become. -
12:03 - 12:05And then you can start to use the methods.
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12:05 - 12:07But, once you're using the methods,
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12:07 - 12:10they actually build the skills,
which builds the memory. -
12:10 - 12:13So it sort of snowballs.
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12:13 - 12:14And it turns out,
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12:14 - 12:19you actually only need a few weeks of training
to build these skills, -
12:19 - 12:22and then you can be pretty independent.
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12:22 - 12:24So, let's relate this to language learn--
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12:24 - 12:26... to learning vocabulary.
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12:26 - 12:29Now one reason that it's about vocabulary
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12:29 - 12:32Is because the big fat book I read
is about vocabulary. -
12:32 - 12:34If that book was about something else,
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12:34 - 12:35this speech would be about something else.
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12:35 - 12:39But it's because
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12:39 - 12:41loads and loads and loads of real research
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12:41 - 12:44from applied linguistics and not from theorists
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12:44 - 12:48has shown that in order to comprehend spoken stuff
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12:48 - 12:49and written stuff,
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12:49 - 12:52vocabulary is actually far more important
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12:52 - 12:56than subject knowledge ...
knowledge about the subject matter -
12:56 - 13:02and far more important than grammatical knowledge.
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13:02 - 13:03Now, how many words do you need?
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13:03 - 13:05I guess you people
know all these kind of numbers -
13:05 - 13:07that talk about things like
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13:07 - 13:12"Native speakers have
20,000-word vocabulary." -
13:12 - 13:14Ooh! That's a big number!
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13:14 - 13:15It actually turns out that
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13:15 - 13:17people learn around a thousand words a year
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13:17 - 13:21pretty consistently up until around university age.
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13:21 - 13:24So when a child goes to school for the first time,
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13:24 - 13:25they'll know 5,000 words.
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13:25 - 13:27mostly learned orally
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13:27 - 13:28from their parents,
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13:28 - 13:30and add a thousand words a year.
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13:30 - 13:34"I haven't got 20 years
to learn some foreign language!" -
13:34 - 13:40"Jesus Christ! I am an old man!
I'll be dead by then." [Laughter] -
13:40 - 13:42But you need a very high vocabulary
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13:42 - 13:45in order to have "pleasant free reading",
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13:45 - 13:47for it not to be a frazzling experience,
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13:47 - 13:49for it to be a pleasurable experience.
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13:49 - 13:53If you have 95% coverage of the vocabulary
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13:53 - 13:56in a newspaper
like the Guardian or something, -
13:56 - 13:58You can understand it.
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13:58 - 13:59It's not easy.
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13:59 - 14:03If it's 90%,
understanding of the vocabulary in the Guardian, -
14:03 - 14:05you really know you're studying.
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14:05 - 14:0985% - it's for Richard Simcott and Luca only,
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14:09 - 14:12and even those guys are defeated when it's 80%.
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14:12 - 14:15Oooh, that's pretty spooky.
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14:15 - 14:20So, what's the polyNot approach to vocabulary?
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14:20 - 14:25Well, I didn't have to look very far to know that!
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14:26 - 14:28Yikes! 20,000 words!
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14:29 - 14:31That's a lot of flashcards!
[Laughter] -
14:35 - 14:38PolyNots tend to believe in the existence,
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14:38 - 14:40that there's one magic strategy
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14:40 - 14:41that's going to be the best one.
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14:41 - 14:43You see them asking this on forums.
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14:43 - 14:47Actually, interestingly,
people have spoken to polyNots -
14:47 - 14:49and found that
they don't really believe it -
14:49 - 14:51but they kid themselves into believing it.
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14:51 - 14:55They feel guilty they are not using
a wider range of strategies, -
14:55 - 14:58but they're more comforted by believing
they are using the best one. -
14:58 - 15:01So they seek confirmation
from people like Richard, -
15:01 - 15:03to say, "Yeah, that's a really good one."
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15:03 - 15:05Then they feel they're doing
what the masters do. -
15:05 - 15:07And they tend to stick with it then
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15:07 - 15:09despite all the evidence.
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15:09 - 15:12You know that definition of insanity is
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15:12 - 15:14doing the same thing over and over and over again
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15:14 - 15:14despite all the evidence
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15:14 - 15:17and expecting a different result.
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15:17 - 15:21That's what we do ... us polyNots.
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15:21 - 15:23So, they spend a mass amount of time
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15:23 - 15:26on learning single, unrelated words,
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15:26 - 15:30and you end up with things like "Anki addiction".
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15:30 - 15:32I've seen on Anki forums guys saying...
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15:32 - 15:35"I've spent 2 hours putting new words into Anki today...
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15:35 - 15:37and 15 minutes reviewing them."
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15:37 - 15:41They're just... addicted.
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15:42 - 15:45And they do these lengthy cramming sessions
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15:45 - 15:47when they want to be heroic.
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15:47 - 15:50"Ooh. I'll get as much energy as I can
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15:50 - 15:53and do a cramming session tonight."
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15:54 - 15:58And they want to pin down
the one true meaning of a word -
15:58 - 16:02and get that one simple definition
on their flashcard. -
16:02 - 16:05They see dictionaries as authoritative,
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16:05 - 16:09so that, if they think they know
what a word means, -
16:09 - 16:12but they see a different definition
of the word in the dictionary -
16:12 - 16:16they'll abandon their own understanding of the word
as completely wrong. -
16:16 - 16:17"Oh no! I'm an idiot."
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16:17 - 16:18"I've got it wrong."
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16:18 - 16:21"It means something else
because the dictionary tells me so." -
16:21 - 16:23And they beat themselves up
when they forget a word. -
16:23 - 16:28As you can imagine,
I'm beating myself up a lot. -
16:28 - 16:31The idea then is that
you either know a word or you don't. -
16:31 - 16:33It's black or white.
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16:33 - 16:36And you stop reviewing a word
once you know it. -
16:36 - 16:37"Oh, I know that word now,
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16:37 - 16:40time for me to move on to another one."
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16:40 - 16:43And where do they decide
what words they're gonna work on? -
16:43 - 16:45Those that are given to them
in homework -
16:45 - 16:49or in the textbook
are the most important by far, -
16:49 - 16:52even when they know
they're not interesting. -
16:52 - 16:55Things that are in thematic groups.
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16:55 - 16:57I remember when I was studying French,
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16:57 - 17:01and we were given a list of all the
different words for different fishes. -
17:01 - 17:04And it had their English translations,
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17:04 - 17:07and I'd never heard of half of
the English names for the fishes, -
17:07 - 17:09but was still learning the French ones.
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17:09 - 17:10What?!
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17:10 - 17:11This is interesting:
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17:11 - 17:14ones that "sound nice".
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17:14 - 17:15Pampeliška.
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17:15 - 17:18Who knows what pampeliška means?
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17:18 - 17:20It's a nice sounding word...
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17:20 - 17:22You should go and look up what it means.
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17:22 - 17:24Vulgar or unusual words.
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17:24 - 17:26"Eeeee! Let's get the slang book."
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17:26 - 17:27"I can learn the swear words!"
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17:27 - 17:29"Won't that be good?"
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17:29 - 17:33And none of this is about whether the words are useful.
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17:33 - 17:37So, they shun output quite a lot
as too painful -
17:37 - 17:39"Oh no, that's going to remind me
of what I don't know!" -
17:39 - 17:40"I'm going to look like an idiot!"
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17:40 - 17:42"I'm not going to do any output."
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17:42 - 17:46One day I'll know 20,000 words
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17:46 - 17:47and then I'll be fluent.
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17:47 - 17:48It'll be easy.
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17:48 - 17:51I won't need to go through all that output.
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17:51 - 17:54It'll just be easy all of a sudden.
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17:54 - 17:56So, like one of my friends,
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17:56 - 17:58you can say 'octopus'...
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17:58 - 18:00you can say 'hovercraft'...
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18:00 - 18:04but you can't say
"Can you help me, please?" -
18:04 - 18:05[Laughter]
-
18:05 - 18:09If only they'd learned
the word for 'helicopter', -
18:09 - 18:12that would have been it!
-
18:12 - 18:14So, the polyglot approach to vocabulary
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18:14 - 18:16according to that book
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18:16 - 18:19is very different.
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18:20 - 18:24Vocabulary learning is not an end goal
for polyglots. -
18:24 - 18:28It's not about
"I've got 20,000 words in Anki!" -
18:28 - 18:32No, it's about
effective control over vocabulary -
18:32 - 18:35for confident and fluent use
-
18:35 - 18:37in listening, speaking,
reading, and writing, -
18:37 - 18:41not just for getting high scores on Anki.
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18:41 - 18:45So, knowing a word
is not an all or nothing affair. -
18:45 - 18:49Words sink in over time.
-
18:49 - 18:51You get repeated viewings,
like on an Anki card, -
18:51 - 18:55but you also get a broader,
more diverse viewing of a word -
18:55 - 18:58from different contexts
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18:58 - 19:00to teach you the wide meanings
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19:00 - 19:03and the broad meanings of words.
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19:03 - 19:09In particular, polyglots see knowing a word
as multidimensional: -
19:09 - 19:11form, meaning, and use.
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19:11 - 19:12Which means,
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19:12 - 19:13the spelling of the word,
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19:13 - 19:15the parts the word is made up of,
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19:15 - 19:17... the word ...
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19:17 - 19:18and the pronunciation of the word,
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19:18 - 19:19what the tone is,
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19:19 - 19:20where the emphasis is,
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19:20 - 19:22all these kind of things.
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19:22 - 19:24And the meaning...
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19:24 - 19:26Maybe there's a central concept to the word,
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19:26 - 19:29but there can be
very diverse meanings as well -
19:29 - 19:30and you have learn all of these.
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19:30 - 19:33You don't reject all of them
apart from the "one true one". -
19:33 - 19:36And words have lots of associations
-
19:36 - 19:37- We saw this
in one of the speeches yesterday - -
19:37 - 19:39If you use the wrong word
in the wrong context, -
19:39 - 19:42it'll cause all sorts of
strange associations to people -
19:42 - 19:44that were unexpected to you.
-
19:44 - 19:46And use...
-
19:46 - 19:49So, is this a high frequency word?
-
19:49 - 19:52And in what context is it high frequency?
-
19:52 - 19:58"How's it hangin'?"
isn't very high frequency in written form -
19:58 - 20:00for example.
-
20:00 - 20:01How formal is it?
-
20:01 - 20:05"Hey man, give me five"
isn't very good at a job interview. -
20:05 - 20:08[Laughter]
-
20:08 - 20:09Oh, medium, yes...
-
20:09 - 20:11Is it spoken form or written form?
-
20:11 - 20:12And collocations
-
20:12 - 20:14- I don't even know if I'm saying that correctly -
-
20:14 - 20:17- I've always said it /kɑləˈkeɪʃənz/ -
-
20:17 - 20:20is a thing that polyNots tend to ignore
-
20:20 - 20:25but polyglots, even without realising it
-
20:25 - 20:29- we'll see - place a lot of emphasis on these.
-
20:29 - 20:30So, polyglots cover all those by
-
20:30 - 20:34balancing four strands of study:
-
20:34 - 20:36Intensive vocabulary study
-
20:36 - 20:41This is the stuff that polyNots like me
over-focus on -
20:41 - 20:43Extensive listening and reading
-
20:43 - 20:44Speaking and writing
-
20:44 - 20:45and Fluency development
-
20:45 - 20:47I'll come to these in detail.
-
20:47 - 20:49Strand 1: Intensive vocabulary study
-
20:49 - 20:52Choose words based on frequency.
-
20:52 - 20:56Frequency really means usefulness.
-
20:57 - 21:00You need 20,000 words to get 98% coverage.
-
21:00 - 21:02"Ha! No! I've got to learn all of them!"
-
21:02 - 21:07No. Because even just knowing 10 words,
you can get 24% coverage. -
21:07 - 21:15So, learn those 10 words first.
[Laughter] -
21:15 - 21:19[applause]
-
21:19 - 21:22So, it's been shown in research
-
21:22 - 21:26that you should study quite intensively the first
-
21:26 - 21:28highest frequency 2,000 to 4,000 words
-
21:28 - 21:30That's worth putting time in.
-
21:30 - 21:32That's worth sticking into Anki.
-
21:32 - 21:34In fact, it's very interesting,
-
21:34 - 21:37polyglots, perhaps from their vast experience,
-
21:37 - 21:39have a general sense
for what's high frequency, -
21:39 - 21:41for what's worth knowing.
-
21:41 - 21:42PolyNots don't.
-
21:42 - 21:44They see every word
as equally worth knowing -
21:44 - 21:46so they just take other people's lists.
-
21:46 - 21:48So, they should probably use frequency dictionaries.
-
21:48 - 21:49There are some brilliant ones
-
21:49 - 21:51With the most 4,000 ...
-
21:51 - 21:554,000 most important words
in Spanish, or French, or German, ... -
21:55 - 21:56Just go with those.
-
21:56 - 21:59Make that your order
rather than randomness. -
21:59 - 22:05But then, rather than learning the next 2,000
high-frequency general words, -
22:05 - 22:07it's far more useful to you to focus on
-
22:07 - 22:10the 2,000 most frequent words
-
22:10 - 22:14in your specialist field
of personal interest. -
22:14 - 22:15So, for example,
-
22:15 - 22:17there's something called the "Academic Word List"
-
22:17 - 22:20which has got about 350 words.
-
22:20 - 22:21If you learn those
-
22:21 - 22:23- There are books on this actually,
things like -
22:23 - 22:25French for Reading,
or German for Reading - -
22:25 - 22:27and they train you to be very good
-
22:27 - 22:32with the academic vocabulary
for reading scientific papers. -
22:32 - 22:34You'll learn a few hundred words
-
22:34 - 22:36that'll be really useful in that field.
-
22:36 - 22:38Conversational vocab
-
22:38 - 22:38This is what ...
-
22:38 - 22:39- I don't know if anybody knows
-
22:39 - 22:40what my "conversational connectors" are -
-
22:40 - 22:42This is focusing on stuff that
-
22:42 - 22:44you say a lot in conversations
-
22:44 - 22:47but you never see in written form.
-
22:47 - 22:49So, a lot of people just read textbooks
-
22:49 - 22:51or study literature or something,
-
22:51 - 22:52and they can't hold a conversation
-
22:52 - 22:53because they've never been exposed to
-
22:53 - 22:55conversational vocabulary.
-
22:55 - 22:59Journalism - It turns out there are
just a few hundred words -
22:59 - 23:00that appear constantly across journalism,
-
23:00 - 23:03and you need to know them
to work in that area. -
23:03 - 23:08Fiction.
Fiction has its own vocabulary. -
23:08 - 23:10Shoe selling
-
23:10 - 23:13It's worth knowing the word "shoelace"
-
23:13 - 23:14if you're doing shoe selling,
-
23:14 - 23:19but not if you're reading Tolstoy.
-
23:19 - 23:22There was a personal stab
at a specific person there -
23:22 - 23:23I won't say who.
-
23:24 - 23:25OK
-
23:26 - 23:30Now, some researchers
looked at this whole field -
23:30 - 23:33and they found, for example,
there's a very important textbook -
23:33 - 23:34with 300,000 words.
-
23:34 - 23:37- It's a big, fat
telephone directory kind of book -
23:37 - 23:38for macroeconomics -
-
23:38 - 23:42and they found that
just 34 specialist words -
23:42 - 23:46covered 10% of that textbook
-
23:46 - 23:48Learn those
-
23:48 - 23:52if you are interested in macroeconomics.
-
23:53 - 23:54Has it stopped? OK.
-
23:54 - 23:57Then, beyond those 6000 words,
-
23:57 - 24:02"Ankimania" is probably not worth it.
-
24:02 - 24:06The words are going to come up too rarely
-
24:06 - 24:08to make that intensive study worth it.
-
24:08 - 24:12Just let yourself get exposed to them
naturally, -
24:12 - 24:14through [Strand 2] Extensive listening and reading.
-
24:14 - 24:16Again, according to the book, not according to me.
-
24:16 - 24:19So, extensive listening and reading
does three things. -
24:19 - 24:24It helps you encounter
low frequency words. -
24:24 - 24:27It helps you enrich and deepen
- This is so vital! - -
24:27 - 24:30enrich and deepen
your knowledge of high frequency words. -
24:30 - 24:33It's not, "I know that now.
It's a waste of time me seeing it again." -
24:33 - 24:35It needs to be enriched and deepened.
-
24:35 - 24:36And it helps you to master collocations.
-
24:36 - 24:38I'm going to come back to those.
-
24:39 - 24:42So, unfortunately
to learn words from context, -
24:42 - 24:44from reading and listening,
-
24:44 - 24:47you need about 95 to 98% coverage.
-
24:47 - 24:52Supergeniuses...
of which there are many in this room -
24:52 - 24:55but none standing up here on the platform
-
24:55 - 24:59can manage with 90%.
-
24:59 - 25:01So does that mean you've got to have
-
25:01 - 25:0320,000-word vocabulary before you start?
-
25:03 - 25:05No. It turns out that polyglots
-
25:05 - 25:07have this fantastic ability
-
25:07 - 25:10at sniffing out manageable material:
-
25:10 - 25:14Things they can handle.
Things that don't intimidate them. -
25:14 - 25:17I say,
and many other people have said actually, -
25:17 - 25:20that one of the best things a teacher can do,
is not lecture you on grammar, -
25:20 - 25:23but point out to you
-
25:23 - 25:25appropriate material
for you to be working with. -
25:25 - 25:27"You're ready for this now."
-
25:27 - 25:28"Go and look at that, now."
-
25:28 - 25:32"You won't be overwhelmed and
you won't be underwhelmed." -
25:32 - 25:33An example: graded readers.
-
25:33 - 25:35Great, if you are learning English, by the way,
-
25:35 - 25:40bad if you're learning
Dzongkha from Bhutan. -
25:40 - 25:41Unfortunately there aren't any.
-
25:41 - 25:45But the Oxford Bookworm series
has 6 levels -
25:45 - 25:49each introducing 400 words only.
-
25:49 - 25:53Level 1 requires a vocabulary
of only 400 words. -
25:53 - 25:55And by the end of the 6 levels,
-
25:55 - 25:57about 10 books in each level,
-
25:57 - 26:01you've learned 2,500 high frequency words.
-
26:01 - 26:02And they are not baby books.
-
26:02 - 26:06It's not "Spot the Dog" or
"Here is Peter and Jane". -
26:06 - 26:10It's things like "Mutiny on the Bounty"
and "The Phantom of the Opera" -
26:10 - 26:11and stuff like that, stuff that adults...
-
26:11 - 26:13stuff that's not going to
bore the pants off you. -
26:13 - 26:17And the aim here is not to make it easy.
-
26:17 - 26:21The aim here is to help you
develop vocabulary control -
26:21 - 26:27by eliminating the deleterious superfluity
of very low frequency vocabulary, -
26:27 - 26:30such as "deleterious superfluity".
-
26:30 - 26:33[Laughter]
-
26:33 - 26:37[Applause]
-
26:37 - 26:39The idea here is that you hit words
-
26:39 - 26:42from many, many, many different angles.
-
26:42 - 26:45And you deepen and broaden
your knowledge of it. -
26:45 - 26:46OK?
-
26:46 - 26:48Then after those graded readers,
-
26:48 - 26:50then you are ready for authentic materials
-
26:50 - 26:52in your specialist area.
-
26:52 - 26:53You can dive in.
-
26:53 - 26:54They've prepared you.
-
26:56 - 27:00Now, unfortunately, it takes a long time.
-
27:00 - 27:04To learn 1,000 low-frequency words a year
-
27:04 - 27:06needs massive amounts of exposure.
-
27:06 - 27:10You need - Oh My God! -
one million words -
27:10 - 27:14reading or listening, or a combination
-
27:14 - 27:16to give you sufficient repetition
-
27:16 - 27:18to absorb 1,000 words a year.
-
27:18 - 27:20So, I think that's a realistic goal.
-
27:20 - 27:25People want to become masters in days.
-
27:25 - 27:28Be realistic.
-
27:28 - 27:29OK, that means you have got to read
-
27:29 - 27:31one or two books a month,
-
27:31 - 27:33or read a magazine like Newsweek
every week, -
27:33 - 27:35to steadily increase your vocabulary
-
27:35 - 27:39rather than just maintain your current level.
-
27:39 - 27:43OK, so how do you deal with
unknown vocabulary? -
27:43 - 27:48Well, polyNots - like me - rely on a gloss
-
27:48 - 27:49that's some kind of cheat-sheet
-
27:49 - 27:50with the words in it,
-
27:50 - 27:52which is good for textbooks,
-
27:52 - 27:54bad when you're reading Harry Potter.
-
27:54 - 27:55There isn't a cheat-sheet.
-
27:55 - 27:56So then you jump to the dictionary
-
27:56 - 27:57and look every word up
-
27:57 - 27:59and it's bloody slow.
-
27:59 - 28:02It doesn't half make the book far less interesting
-
28:02 - 28:05But polyglots, though...
-
28:05 - 28:07guess!
-
28:08 - 28:10And this is the central thing.
-
28:10 - 28:12Guessing is what it's about.
-
28:12 - 28:14Guessing, it has been shown
-
28:14 - 28:18- with probes in the brain, apparently -
-
28:18 - 28:22[Laughter]
- I've had probes in many places, but not yet in my brain. - -
28:22 - 28:26- But that's enough bedroom talk. -
[Laughter] -
28:26 - 28:28So, guessing, it turns out,
-
28:28 - 28:30gives longer-lasting and
deeper meaning over time. -
28:30 - 28:32You remember things for longer
-
28:32 - 28:35and your understanding of them gets much deeper,
-
28:35 - 28:39because you've... thought it through.
-
28:39 - 28:41And, yeah, there you go
-
28:41 - 28:43and repeated encounters with the words
-
28:43 - 28:44in different contexts
-
28:44 - 28:47mean you think my guess was probably wrong before
-
28:47 - 28:49because now the word means something else
-
28:49 - 28:49in this context.
-
28:49 - 28:51Oh! That doesn't mean you
reject the old meaning. -
28:51 - 28:56That means enhance it, enrich it,
elaborate it, and broaden it. -
28:56 - 28:58Now good guessing, how does it happen?
-
28:58 - 29:00It's not... random guessing.
-
29:00 - 29:03It's based on good clues.
-
29:03 - 29:05Now knowing similar languages can help.
-
29:05 - 29:08"Ah! It's easier for him.
He already speaks... whatever." -
29:08 - 29:10Because, you know, it's easy
-
29:10 - 29:12'cause that language has got cognates in it
-
29:12 - 29:13- words that are similar.
-
29:13 - 29:14But it can also hinder
-
29:14 - 29:16due to interference between languages.
-
29:16 - 29:19And polyglots, though, are aware of this
-
29:19 - 29:22and they have mechanisms for managing it
-
29:22 - 29:24and that awareness comes from
-
29:24 - 29:25guessing lots of times
-
29:25 - 29:28and learning when to be careful.
-
29:29 - 29:31They rely far more
-
29:31 - 29:34on a wide variety of contextual clues
-
29:34 - 29:36to make their guesses sensible,
-
29:36 - 29:39rather than just on their backgrounds.
-
29:39 - 29:41And they evaluate these clues
against each another. -
29:41 - 29:43There've been loads of studies
-
29:43 - 29:44looking at eye movements
-
29:44 - 29:46and all these kinda things
-
29:46 - 29:47showing people broadening out
-
29:47 - 29:49and narrowing in
-
29:49 - 29:51to look for new guesses...
-
29:51 - 29:52- And it's an automatic process. -
-
29:52 - 29:56- You don't even know you're doing it,
once you're doing it. - -
29:56 - 29:59... until they feel that their guess
-
29:59 - 30:00is sufficiently well founded,
-
30:00 - 30:01or at least as well founded
-
30:01 - 30:04as they can make it now.
-
30:05 - 30:07So they don't guess randomly.
-
30:07 - 30:08They're actually inferring things
-
30:08 - 30:09from the context.
-
30:09 - 30:11It's informed guessing,
-
30:11 - 30:15which increases the chance
that the guessing is sensible. -
30:15 - 30:18And, importantly,
they're happy not to know everything! -
30:18 - 30:20They will leave things for another time.
-
30:20 - 30:22Happy with partial understanding.
-
30:22 - 30:25PolyNots hate that.
-
30:25 - 30:27All the research, though, shows
-
30:27 - 30:29that to notice clues,
-
30:29 - 30:31and to evaluate them against one another,
-
30:31 - 30:32and then to make good guesses,
you need... -
30:32 - 30:35a very strong short term memory.
-
30:35 - 30:37And without it,
you don't notice the clues. -
30:37 - 30:39You can't remember them.
-
30:39 - 30:41You forget them
as soon as you've seen them. -
30:41 - 30:42And so you can't evaluate them
against each other -
30:42 - 30:46And so your guesses
are absolutely useless! -
30:46 - 30:47Like my guesses.
-
30:47 - 30:51Thankfully, short term memory
can be trained. -
30:51 - 30:52The downside, though,
-
30:52 - 30:55is that it gets a lot harder
as you get older. -
30:55 - 30:57There's been research by neurologists
-
30:57 - 31:00that shows that old guys like me
-
31:00 - 31:05have an ever-decreasing
short term memory. -
31:05 - 31:08I'm just hoping to hold on to
the bits I've got left! -
31:08 - 31:10If you're young like half the pe---
-
31:10 - 31:1190 percent of the people here,
-
31:11 - 31:14compared to me, are very young.
-
31:14 - 31:17Train your memory now, if you need to.
-
31:17 - 31:18So, the idea though,
-
31:18 - 31:22is to gradually increase
your reading span, with recall. -
31:22 - 31:24Just start on a couple of words,
-
31:24 - 31:26look away
-
31:26 - 31:28and recall what you've just read.
-
31:28 - 31:31It doesn't have to be word-for-word,
but close. -
31:31 - 31:33Then broaden it, broaden it,
and broaden it. -
31:33 - 31:34And it has been found that just doing this
-
31:34 - 31:37for 10 minutes a day for 6 weeks
-
31:37 - 31:41will make you into a good guesser.
-
31:41 - 31:42I guess.
[Laughter] -
31:44 - 31:45And then...
-
31:45 - 31:49So, once you've got the
noticing and recall bit, -
31:49 - 31:53then you can start to apply guessing.
Yeah? -
31:53 - 31:55You can now recall the clues
-
31:55 - 31:57and then you can guess based on them.
-
31:57 - 31:59And again, go back to going small,
-
31:59 - 32:01expand it out again
-
32:01 - 32:05until the guessing becomes automatic.
-
32:05 - 32:06And this is what's important:
-
32:06 - 32:09automaticity,
doing things without thinking anymore. -
32:09 - 32:13By the way, this is where
you cannot compress experience. -
32:13 - 32:14You can go through the motions,
-
32:14 - 32:15but you can't compress experience,
-
32:15 - 32:19because it's automaticity of guessing
that you really need. -
32:19 - 32:22Strand 3: Speaking and Writing
-
32:22 - 32:25Activation is really hard!
-
32:25 - 32:30Learning thousands of words does not mean
you'll be able to speak them. -
32:30 - 32:31It doesn't happen magically.
-
32:31 - 32:35And polyglots are very good at feeling the fear and doing it anyway.
-
32:35 - 32:38This is a Benny type of thing here:
["Benny" = Benny Lewis, a well-known polyglot] -
32:38 - 32:40Speak early; speak often!
-
32:40 - 32:4510 words is enough to have a good conversation.
-
32:45 - 32:49Thankfully for me!
[Laughter] -
32:49 - 32:562,000 words is considered a mature adult vocabulary
for colloquial conversations. -
32:56 - 32:58You don't need 20,000.
-
32:58 - 33:01You might for reading literature, but not for talking.
-
33:01 - 33:04So how do you activate?
-
33:04 - 33:06You saw my big fat book there
on vocabulary, -
33:06 - 33:08which is dull and boring.
-
33:08 - 33:12Here's my favourite book on activating.
-
33:12 - 33:18"How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately"
by Boris Shekhtman -
33:18 - 33:23You can search on my name and
I've got a video about it. -
33:23 - 33:25Why is that book so thin?!
-
33:25 - 33:29I want a fat book that... tells me how to activate!
-
33:29 - 33:31But there's very little research on this
-
33:31 - 33:34and one reason is thought to be
-
33:34 - 33:35that historically,
-
33:35 - 33:39language teaching is about
keeping the student quiet, -
33:39 - 33:42so that they can focus on
what they're being taught. -
33:42 - 33:44And there's a load of research
in teaching vocabulary, -
33:44 - 33:49very little in the student
actually becoming active. -
33:52 - 33:54Richard...
-
33:54 - 33:57[Laughter]
-
33:57 - 34:01Rehearsing at home helps!
-
34:01 - 34:02Just talk to yourself,
-
34:02 - 34:04make a fool of yourself,
laugh at yourself in the mirror. -
34:04 - 34:07Actually, talking to yourself
in front of the mirror -
34:07 - 34:11is one of the best ways
to get over the fear of talking in public, -
34:11 - 34:12it turns out.
-
34:12 - 34:14Seeing another face.
-
34:14 - 34:17Looking yourself in the eye.
-
34:17 - 34:18OK.
-
34:18 - 34:20Self-talk
-
34:20 - 34:23Just repeating everything you see in your daily life
-
34:23 - 34:27and these are things
that polyNots do not do. -
34:27 - 34:30Polyglots, it turns out,
often do these things -
34:30 - 34:32without even realising
they're doing them. -
34:32 - 34:35When they are studying vocabulary,
very often, -
34:35 - 34:36automatically in the back of their head
-
34:36 - 34:38they'll be thinking of
how to apply the vocabulary -
34:38 - 34:39and just using it automatically
-
34:39 - 34:42rather than thinking,
"I've just learned it." -
34:42 - 34:44And this is
- perhaps the number one thing - -
34:44 - 34:47is to summarize things.
-
34:47 - 34:48We've seen you can use 400 words
-
34:48 - 34:51to write Moby Dick
and these kinds of books. -
34:51 - 34:54So you can use 400 words to summarize
pretty much anything. -
34:54 - 34:57Simplify, simplify, simplify!
-
34:57 - 35:01Please practice,
to all the PolyNots out there, -
35:01 - 35:02and just... do it.
-
35:02 - 35:06And this is another one, "Islands" mean...
-
35:06 - 35:09- this is from here -
something very important. -
35:09 - 35:11And I'm not going to tell you
what it means. -
35:11 - 35:13I want you to buy the book.
-
35:13 - 35:16That author deserves it.
-
35:16 - 35:18Ok, there you go.
-
35:18 - 35:22For writing, again, you only need 400 words
to write some pretty good stuff. -
35:22 - 35:25You can write Phantom of the Opera.
-
35:25 - 35:28And then you keep elaborating
what you've written -
35:28 - 35:30as your vocabulary grows.
-
35:30 - 35:31So you could write Phantom of the Opera
-
35:31 - 35:33with a 400-word vocabulary,
-
35:33 - 35:34and then come back to it
-
35:34 - 35:36and write a better version.
-
35:36 - 35:38This is what "islands" are about.
-
35:38 - 35:42Write loads of things;
keep elaborating them. -
35:42 - 35:45Strand 4: Fluency Development
-
35:45 - 35:46Oh, what's "fluency"?
-
35:46 - 35:49I'm going to go with a really simple definition.
-
35:49 - 35:51Fluency is not a magical process
-
35:51 - 35:53of sounding like a native. No.
-
35:53 - 35:56Fluency is not about a big vocabulary.
-
35:56 - 36:02Fluency is about being quick,
and smooth, and in control... -
36:02 - 36:05with what you already have.
-
36:05 - 36:10You can be fluent with your 10-word
vocabulary in conversations. -
36:10 - 36:13And it's training for automaticity.
-
36:13 - 36:14People have asked me in the past,
-
36:14 - 36:16"How do you think in a foreign language?"
-
36:16 - 36:18And my answer is always:
-
36:18 - 36:21The aim is to learn not to think at all,
-
36:21 - 36:24for the words just to
come out automatically. -
36:24 - 36:31Because, it's shown that thinking is
too slow for real life. [Laughter] -
36:31 - 36:36And 4 practices have been shown as
essential to gaining fluency -
36:36 - 36:39without needing to think
when you're having conversations. -
36:39 - 36:41So the first one: Overlearning
-
36:41 - 36:42Learn and learn and learn and learn.
-
36:42 - 36:45Just because you know a word,
you don't know it. -
36:45 - 36:48Keep hitting the word from different angles.
-
36:48 - 36:50It'll get deeper inside you.
-
36:50 - 36:52Do things at a higher speed
than you're comfortable with. -
36:52 - 36:54PolyNots will listen to the radio
and think, -
36:54 - 36:56"I can't understand it.
It's too quick." -
36:56 - 36:59put it aside, and go back to something
really slow in the textbook. -
36:59 - 37:02They never expose themselves
to the hard stuff. -
37:02 - 37:04You need to.
-
37:05 - 37:08Do "time-boxed" reading and writing:
-
37:08 - 37:11"I'm going to read as much as I can
in five minutes". -
37:11 - 37:12And you're going for speed.
-
37:12 - 37:14Speak. Speak quickly.
-
37:14 - 37:16And try not to make stupid errors,
-
37:16 - 37:17but mostly go for speed.
-
37:17 - 37:18And writing...
-
37:18 - 37:21Write an essay as long as you can
in five minutes. -
37:21 - 37:23And these prepare you for real life,
-
37:23 - 37:25even though you're going to make mistakes.
-
37:25 - 37:27And then - another Benny thing -
-
37:27 - 37:29get out there in real life
-
37:29 - 37:32and have lots of real-life encounters.
-
37:32 - 37:37Because that is where all your theory
comes into practice -
37:37 - 37:39and you realise you're tongue-tied.
-
37:39 - 37:41And the only way to not be tongue-tied
-
37:41 - 37:43is to get out there and do it.
-
37:43 - 37:46However, even gaining
automaticity with words, -
37:46 - 37:48you're still not fast enough.
-
37:48 - 37:50Thinking's too slow.
-
37:50 - 37:54Automaticity with words is too slow.
-
37:54 - 37:59You need automaticity
with clusters of words. -
37:59 - 38:00And it's been shown ...
-
38:00 - 38:02In other words, these are collocations
-
38:02 - 38:03I'm going to use this word
"collocations" to mean -
38:03 - 38:08to mean "clusters of words
that tend to go together in real life". -
38:08 - 38:10Because research has shown
-
38:10 - 38:12that in real-life speech
-
38:12 - 38:15- they've recorded native speakers, and so on -
-
38:15 - 38:16in authentic speech ...
-
38:16 - 38:20and found that they are speaking at rates
-
38:20 - 38:21faster than the ...
-
38:21 - 38:25[video skipped; see slide: "...brain could possibly recreate..."]
just building it on grammar and individual words. -
38:25 - 38:27So you need to be able to say things like,
-
38:27 - 38:34"You need to be able to say things like".
[Laughter] -
38:36 - 38:38But collocations are about far more
-
38:38 - 38:40than just speed.
-
38:40 - 38:42It's not just speed training.
-
38:42 - 38:43They deepen our understanding
-
38:43 - 38:46of the rich meanings of individual words.
-
38:46 - 38:48So, learning chunks
also teaches about individual words. -
38:48 - 38:51For example, the word "cause".
-
38:51 - 38:54This is just a pretty
neutral-sounding word. -
38:54 - 38:56Does "cause" sound positive,
or negative, or neutral? -
38:56 - 38:57I'd say neutral.
-
38:57 - 39:00But, actually, it turns out it collocates
-
39:00 - 39:02with undesirable situations.
-
39:02 - 39:05You very rarely say,
"That causes happiness." -
39:05 - 39:06But you would say, things like
-
39:06 - 39:08"Ooh, that causes concern."
-
39:08 - 39:10"He's causing trouble."
-
39:10 - 39:12"Oh, that's are real cause
for embarrassment." -
39:12 - 39:15"Cause" tends to collocate
with negative stuff. -
39:15 - 39:19So don't use it talking about
positive stuff so much. -
39:19 - 39:21"Signal" - This is a good word.
-
39:21 - 39:23Who knows what "signal" means?
-
39:23 - 39:27Oh, nobody?
[Laughter] -
39:27 - 39:28"Thank you for the signal."
-
39:28 - 39:30What does it mean?
-
39:30 - 39:37[muffled answer from the audience]
-
39:37 - 39:40"She sent the king a signal."
-
39:40 - 39:43A message! It's a noun, isn't it?
-
39:43 - 39:47"Then saw him signal back."
-
39:47 - 39:50Oh, it's a verb!
-
39:50 - 39:51Oh, I was wrong!
-
39:51 - 39:53Here's a very good one
-
39:53 - 39:54that you probably don't know
-
39:54 - 39:55unless you're a native speaker.
-
39:55 - 39:58"It was a signal honour."
-
39:58 - 39:59It's an adjective!
-
39:59 - 40:03It means "significant or important".
-
40:03 - 40:05And only by hitting the word
-
40:05 - 40:07through massive exposure in many contexts
-
40:07 - 40:10and understanding
the various meanings of things. -
40:10 - 40:13Like, "signal honour" is a collocation
-
40:13 - 40:15you see all the time
-
40:15 - 40:19if you... read books about signal honours.
-
40:19 - 40:23[Laughter]
-
40:24 - 40:28And collocations are necessary
to sound authentic, -
40:28 - 40:30because a great many things
-
40:30 - 40:32that are grammatically correct,
-
40:32 - 40:36even if you know
all the grammar and the vocabulary, -
40:36 - 40:38well, we just don't say it that way!
-
40:38 - 40:40"I want some speedy food."
-
40:40 - 40:41"I've not got time,
-
40:41 - 40:43I'm gonna get some quick food for lunch."
-
40:43 - 40:45Why do they only say "fast food"?
-
40:45 - 40:47Because they do!
-
40:49 - 40:54And many collocations are grammatically incorrect,
-
40:54 - 40:57and you might not even realise it.
-
40:57 - 40:58"Go to bed."
-
40:58 - 41:01That's grammatically incorrect.
-
41:01 - 41:06You don't say, "Go to kitchen."
-
41:06 - 41:09It's "Go to the kitchen".
-
41:09 - 41:10Why isn't it "Go to the bed"?
-
41:10 - 41:15Because it isn't!
[Laughter and clapping] -
41:15 - 41:17Some are just weird...
-
41:17 - 41:19"hell for leather"
-
41:19 - 41:21Who knows what that even means?
-
41:21 - 41:24It means "go fast".
-
41:24 - 41:26"He's running hell for leather."
-
41:26 - 41:27Quite a rare one,
-
41:27 - 41:32but you'll sound bloody authentic
if you use it! -
41:32 - 41:34Plenty of them are fossilised...
-
41:34 - 41:35"by and large"
-
41:35 - 41:38You can't say "by and big".
[Laughter] -
41:38 - 41:39"Law and order"
-
41:39 - 41:40"Bird's eye view"
-
41:40 - 41:42If you say "Ooh, let's take
a bird's eye look at this," -
41:42 - 41:45it won't quite sound the same will it?
-
41:45 - 41:49"raise an eyebrow" [Laughter]
-
41:49 - 41:50But if you say "lift an eyebrow"
-
41:50 - 41:51it means the same thing,
-
41:51 - 41:54but people will think you're a weirdo.
-
41:54 - 41:56That was a very good
eyebrow raising there. -
41:56 - 41:58(Audience member) Thank you very much.
-
41:58 - 42:01He's got really good eyebrows.
-
42:01 - 42:04But as well as understanding fossilisation,
-
42:04 - 42:07these ones are the hardest ones
to deal with: -
42:07 - 42:09Flexible collocations
-
42:09 - 42:11This is the real mark of authenticity.
-
42:11 - 42:13You can "entertain an idea".
-
42:13 - 42:16You can also "entertain a belief",
-
42:16 - 42:18a bit less frequently.
-
42:18 - 42:19Entertain a thought,
-
42:19 - 42:21a bit less frequent.
-
42:21 - 42:24You can say it.
-
42:24 - 42:26But these are all collations you'd see.
-
42:26 - 42:28And why are you saying "entertain"
related to these words?? -
42:28 - 42:30You're not doing a song or dance,
-
42:30 - 42:33but it's what people say.
-
42:33 - 42:35Now, polyglots, then, actually focus
-
42:35 - 42:38and favour, often without realising it
-
42:38 - 42:40high-frequency collocations
-
42:40 - 42:43over low-frequency words.
-
42:43 - 42:46Don't bother learning
the rare names of fish -
42:46 - 42:47when you can learn things like
-
42:47 - 42:49"raise an eyebrow".
-
42:49 - 42:50This is important,
-
42:50 - 42:51because research has shown repeatedly,
-
42:51 - 42:54over about thirty years of research,
-
42:54 - 42:58the greatest increases
in fluency and authenticity -
42:58 - 43:00come when learners switch their focus
-
43:00 - 43:02from yet more low-frequency words
-
43:02 - 43:05to automaticity of
high-frequency collocations. -
43:05 - 43:07And again, polyglots seems to know this
-
43:07 - 43:09and do it automatically.
-
43:09 - 43:13PolyNots don't.
They add more words to Anki. -
43:13 - 43:15In short, more than 30 years of research
-
43:15 - 43:18tells us that native speakers know
-
43:18 - 43:21around 20,000 individual words
-
43:21 - 43:24but several hundred thousand collocations.
-
43:24 - 43:25Can you believe it?
-
43:25 - 43:27That's what they're doing
all the rest of the time. -
43:27 - 43:29That's what their
24-hours-a-day exposure -
43:29 - 43:31for their whole adult life
is teaching them. -
43:31 - 43:33Not more vocabulary, but richer, deeper
-
43:33 - 43:36meaning in collocations.
-
43:36 - 43:38So, to be highly functional in a language,
-
43:38 - 43:39whatever that means,
-
43:39 - 43:40a learner needs to have
-
43:40 - 43:43gained automaticity with about
-
43:43 - 43:464.000 general high-frequency words,
-
43:46 - 43:502,000 specialist words
in whatever their area is, -
43:50 - 43:54and tens of thousands
of high-frequency collocations. -
43:54 - 43:56And this is what reading
all that literature is doing, -
43:56 - 43:59listening to all those materials is doing.
-
43:59 - 44:02And then continually enriching
through exposure -
44:02 - 44:08the breadth and depth of their knowledge
of all that stuff. -
44:08 - 44:11There you go, through life-long exposure.
-
44:11 - 44:15And the key to achieving all this
-
44:15 - 44:17is to be able to ...
-
44:17 - 44:20Guess!
-
44:20 - 44:22That's it!
-
44:22 - 44:28(applause from the audience)
-
44:28 - 44:34(cheers from the audience)
-
44:34 - 44:37I'm afraid there's no time for questions.
-
44:37 - 44:45(applause and cheers from the audience)
-
44:45 - 44:55(continuing applause)
-
44:55 - 45:02More!
[Laughter] -
45:02 - 45:04I can't hear my wife clapping!
[Laughter] -
45:04 - 45:06(Richard) I don't think there's going to be any questions.
-
45:06 - 45:12I don't think that was a very popular speech, to be honest.
[Laughter] -
45:12 - 45:18(Richard) Fantastic! I've just realised that I'm a polynot.
[Laughter] -
45:18 - 45:21I'd never have guessed!
-
45:21 - 45:24(Richard) And proud!
-
45:24 - 45:26So, no, thank you very much.
-
45:26 - 45:30I've got to say, just in preface to this,
-
45:30 - 45:32we're friends on Facebook
-
45:32 - 45:36(Anthony) Oh no! Don't tell them about my Facebook posts, please!
-
45:36 - 45:38I'm keeping everything secret.
-
45:38 - 45:40But I did see one post saying
-
45:40 - 45:44"I've got three hundred and twenty slides"
-
45:44 - 45:47(Anthony) "[unclear] ... and I'm only half way through!"
-
45:47 - 45:47And I just thought...
-
45:47 - 45:51"Oh my God. What the hell is he going to talk about?"
-
45:51 - 45:53(Anthony) So I trimmed it right back down to
-
45:53 - 45:56the bare minimum of 262.
-
45:56 - 45:58So, um, yeah, imagine my relief
-
45:58 - 46:04when I saw it was just 262.
[Laughter] -
46:04 - 46:05So, I didn't see any of this before
-
46:05 - 46:07you saw it today.
-
46:07 - 46:09It's all new to me too.
-
46:09 - 46:12So, I'm looking forward to questions.
-
46:12 - 46:13I'll start at the front.
-
46:13 - 46:15Less for me to walk.
-
46:15 - 46:17(Q1) First of all, Anthony, that was fabulous.
-
46:17 - 46:19- That was absolutely fabulous.
- Thank you. -
46:19 - 46:22Second of all, I just wanted to add maybe,
-
46:22 - 46:24I have a comment more than a question.
-
46:24 - 46:29just... Mezzofanti and Emil Krebs both
-
46:29 - 46:32did a lot of this stuff through parallel texts.
-
46:32 - 46:34When Emil Krebs died,
-
46:34 - 46:38they found a gazillion different copies
of the New Testament in his chambers. -
46:38 - 46:42And it is said that Mezzofanti also learned different languages
-
46:42 - 46:47through these chunks, these collocations as you're talking about.
-
46:47 - 46:50He would perform the last rites and hear confessions
-
46:50 - 46:53from soldiers from all over the world.
-
46:53 - 46:59- Anyway, it sounds like it was good research.
- Thank you. -
47:01 - 47:02(Q2) Hello, Anthony.
-
47:02 - 47:04First of all, I want to say thank you for your presentation.
-
47:04 - 47:07You were one of the first people that I encountered on YouTube, when I
-
47:07 - 47:12- you know - first started to learn languages, and you provided me with some inspiration.
-
47:12 - 47:15And so, I'm interested in... I can relate to your experience
-
47:15 - 47:18because I believe that when I,... my first encounter with langauge learning
-
47:18 - 47:20was when I was at school trying to learn German
-
47:20 - 47:25and I believed I had absolutely no talent whatsoever.
-
47:25 - 47:31And, I've made significant progress with my Spanish.
-
47:31 - 47:32And now I'm living in Madrid.
-
47:32 - 47:35I want to hear about your experience
-
47:35 - 47:39going from or being a "polynot", as you describe it,
-
47:39 - 47:42and - you know - how your process of learning languages has changed,
-
47:42 - 47:45and do you feel that you have grown as a language learner
-
47:45 - 47:50and that - you know - there's potential for you to become a polyglot one day?
-
47:50 - 47:52Um, ok.
-
47:52 - 47:55I'm an old man.
-
47:55 - 47:58Now, you are supposed to say "Noooo..."
-
47:58 - 48:00[Laughter]
-
48:00 - 48:05Huh! Thanks!
-
48:05 - 48:07Um, yeah.
-
48:07 - 48:09I have a twin brother.
-
48:09 - 48:14And he saw a very beautiful woman around 18 years old working in a pub.
-
48:14 - 48:18And he was speaking to this young woman and flirting a bit and she was flirting back.
-
48:18 - 48:22And it hit him. She could be my granddaughter.
-
48:22 - 48:26And he said, "Do I seem like a dirty old man to you?"
-
48:26 - 48:30And she said, "Yes, but you're a customer so I've got to be nice."
-
48:30 - 48:33[Laughter]
-
48:33 - 48:34Yeah. And, um...
-
48:34 - 48:38I feel a little bit like that with language learning in a way. That...
-
48:38 - 48:43I'm sort of the dirty pervert, the peeping tom,
looking at all you people -
48:43 - 48:47and enjoying it vicariously. There's a good word.
-
48:47 - 48:51But I think I'm getting a little bit better in language learning,
-
48:51 - 48:55mainly through learning to be patient.
-
48:55 - 48:58But I think I'm too old to ever be fantastic.
-
48:58 - 49:02I recently saw some videos by a man who,
-
49:02 - 49:07I won't name him, but you may know who he is because of what I'm about to say.
-
49:07 - 49:12And he had a list of something like 80 languages he wants to learn in the next 10 or 20 years.
-
49:12 - 49:14And he said, "I realise that's unrealistic.
-
49:14 - 49:20I've trimmed it down to 72." [Laughter]
-
49:22 - 49:24It's great to be ambitious.
-
49:24 - 49:27But I don't have time to be ambitious.
-
49:27 - 49:30So, I am reasonably good in Czech now
-
49:30 - 49:33so that I'm not studying it anymore
and I can just live the language. -
49:33 - 49:35And I do study a several other languages
-
49:35 - 49:39and if I can get anywhere with them before I die, I'll be happy,
-
49:39 - 49:45because now I'm enjoying the journey, not just focusing on the destination.
-
49:45 - 49:46Yeah, that's it.
-
49:46 - 49:48- (Q3) Hello.
- Who's that? -
49:48 - 49:50(Unlear) Iversen and I'm
-
49:50 - 49:59And I'm so probably your best example of [... unclear ...] gone mad.
-
49:59 - 50:02Because you may know that I have made word lists
-
50:02 - 50:07that I've made about... I've counted how many Russian words I've printed on word lists
-
50:07 - 50:12since I started my holiday, 14 days ago, that's about 1500.
-
50:12 - 50:15But, I have the idea.
-
50:15 - 50:18I think that I know what I am now. I'm not a polyglot.
-
50:18 - 50:21I'm a polynot, but in 12 different languages.
-
50:21 - 50:27- Yeah.
- Because everything I see hear and read, I forget. -
50:27 - 50:32But I note it down.
And once I've written it down, I remember it. -
50:32 - 50:34And that's why I write all my words down,
-
50:34 - 50:36because then I can start guessing.
-
50:36 - 50:39And I can't start guessing just because
-
50:39 - 50:43I really learned one thing from all your, what was it, 200
-
50:43 - 50:47slides, and that was the word polynot.
-
50:47 - 50:51[...unclear...] but that's enough.
-
50:51 - 50:53Have you thought about different ways
-
50:53 - 50:56of getting to the guessing stage...
-
50:56 - 51:02apart from being a born polyglot or somebody who works through paper like me.
-
51:02 - 51:08But for instance, people who live in places where they have to guess
-
51:08 - 51:12because they never know what the next person is going to say to them.
-
51:12 - 51:13India, places like that.
-
51:13 - 51:17What do they do in a situation where they cannot read,
-
51:17 - 51:21they cannot write everything down, and they are not polyglots?
-
51:21 - 51:26Yeah. So, I have... sometimes people say,
-
51:26 - 51:31on these forums they say, "What language should I learn next?"
-
51:31 - 51:33How do I know?!
-
51:33 - 51:36The two reasons to learn a language are
-
51:36 - 51:38because you have to,
-
51:38 - 51:42which provides masses of external force on you to do it,
-
51:42 - 51:44or because you want to,
-
51:44 - 51:49which provides lots of internal force on you to do it.
-
51:49 - 51:53And I think with those pressures, internal and external,
-
51:53 - 51:54you'll find a way.
-
51:54 - 51:57But when you're at school,
-
51:57 - 51:58and somebody's telling you,
-
51:58 - 52:00"Now you're learning German."
-
52:00 - 52:04There's no actual need.
-
52:04 - 52:07So I don't think the automatic - all the antennas are up
-
52:07 - 52:11and your guessing abilities will become automatic - will be there.
-
52:11 - 52:13Now,
-
52:13 - 52:17I am no expert in all this... in this guessing game.
-
52:17 - 52:21So you asked what are the different ways of being good at guessing. And I can't guess.
-
52:21 - 52:25I don't know. I got most of what I talked about,
-
52:25 - 52:30especially the jokes, from this boring textbook.
-
52:30 - 52:32But now that I know that guessing is important
-
52:32 - 52:35- and I think it's a pretty convincing argument -
-
52:35 - 52:39the next stage for me is, how can I transform myself into a good guesser.
-
52:39 - 52:41And I don't know.
-
52:41 - 52:43If I come to another conference, hopefully I will.
-
52:43 - 52:45Maybe I'll be able to give a presentation
-
52:45 - 52:51on how a useless guesser became a good guesser in a year.
-
52:51 - 52:57[Applause]
-
52:58 - 52:59(Q4) Hi. Um...
-
52:59 - 53:03I suspect many people may know the answer to this question in the room,
-
53:03 - 53:09but I'm curious about how do you quantify how many words you're fluent in.
-
53:09 - 53:10You speak about 2000, 4000...
-
53:10 - 53:15I have no idea what my vocabulary is even in my native language.
-
53:15 - 53:16One very interesting thing is,
-
53:16 - 53:18there were a lot of studies
-
53:18 - 53:21in the 80s and before that
-
53:21 - 53:24about people's vocabulary knowledge.
-
53:24 - 53:26And that's because, as I said,
-
53:26 - 53:29the main aim of languages then
-
53:29 - 53:32was about language teaching
and language testing -
53:32 - 53:34rather than language using.
-
53:34 - 53:37And they constantly invented tests
-
53:37 - 53:40for judging people's vocabulary.
-
53:40 - 53:42And, I think it was as late as 1980,
-
53:42 - 53:46it was estimated that native speakers at an adult level
-
53:46 - 53:50would have a rich vocabulary of around 90,000 words.
-
53:50 - 53:54And now that's realised that's a massive overestimate.
-
53:54 - 53:59And the tests of vocabulary have become much much much better.
-
53:59 - 54:01So that now they estimate it's 20,000.
-
54:01 - 54:05And the way they have tested it,
-
54:05 - 54:09is by applying lots and lots and lots and lots
of different tests -
54:09 - 54:13to find tests that give consistent results.
-
54:13 - 54:14Know what I mean?
-
54:14 - 54:17So, and then that tells them what the good tests are
-
54:17 - 54:19and gives them confidence that their measures are correct.
-
54:19 - 54:22And so there are actually papers that test things,
-
54:22 - 54:25they show you a shape and say,
-
54:25 - 54:31"If this one is smaller than this, then the other one is ...."
-
54:31 - 54:34...bigger. Or something like that.
-
54:34 - 54:38And I would put "shoe lace". I don't know.
-
54:38 - 54:40So, but, there were many many tests, and
-
54:40 - 54:41in the back of that book
-
54:41 - 54:43it actually has a couple of sample tests
-
54:43 - 54:47and refers to loads and loads and loads of others.
-
54:47 - 54:54So there were people whose whole career is working out good tests, yeah.
-
54:54 - 54:58- (Q5) Um, I was wondering what is the
- Who is that? -
54:58 - 55:01- I was wondering what's the title of that thin book that you recommend
-
55:01 - 55:03because I didn't get it when you were talking about it.
-
55:03 - 55:07Yeah. It's called "How to Improve..."
-
55:07 - 55:10Now, the polyglots will remember this title
-
55:10 - 55:16and the polynots will have forgotten the first word already,
[Laughter] -
55:16 - 55:21"How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately"
-
55:21 - 55:25by Boris Shekhtman. It costs around $10.
-
55:25 - 55:29The guy, actually, um...
-
55:29 - 55:33is Russian by birth. And he was
-
55:33 - 55:35employed by the Foreign Service Institute
-
55:35 - 55:37to teach Russian.
-
55:37 - 55:40He was the head of teaching Russian
-
55:40 - 55:43for diplomats in the US.
-
55:43 - 55:46And he taught there for many many many years.
-
55:46 - 55:50And he realised that certain practices
-
55:50 - 55:53were common to the students that were doing the best.
-
55:53 - 55:55And so, when he left the FSI,
-
55:55 - 55:57he made his own company
-
55:57 - 55:58teaching some of these practices.
-
55:58 - 56:02And the main part of it is activating vocabulary:
-
56:02 - 56:04how to get passive knowledge into active knowledge.
-
56:04 - 56:05And this book,
-
56:05 - 56:07there's actually a second edition,
-
56:07 - 56:10which apparently has a few more wisdoms in it
-
56:10 - 56:13- I don't have that - um...
-
56:13 - 56:14But this captures
-
56:14 - 56:16practices that you can do
-
56:16 - 56:18on your own or with a friend or with a teacher
-
56:18 - 56:20on how to activate vocabulary.
-
56:20 - 56:23So, "How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately".
-
56:23 - 56:27Please buy it and support him.
-
56:27 - 56:31I learned of him, by the way, from...
-
56:31 - 56:35what's his name? Harold...
-
56:35 - 56:37who did the Chinese
-
56:37 - 56:38- course.
- for Michel Thomas. -
56:38 - 56:39Michel Thomas Chinese course.
-
56:39 - 56:41- Goodman. Harold Goodman.
- Harold Goodman. Yeah. -
56:41 - 56:43So he liked some of my videos
-
56:43 - 56:45and said, "Oh, I like your videos."
Blah, blah, blah... -
56:45 - 56:48And started... so I had some email exchanges with him.
-
56:48 - 56:53And, he was taught languages first by Michel Thomas,
-
56:53 - 56:57and said "Michel Thomas died, so I needed a new teacher."
-
56:57 - 57:00And he searched high and low and he found Boris Shekhtman,
-
57:00 - 57:04and he said, "This guy is phenomenal."
-
57:04 - 57:05That got me into buying that book.
-
57:05 - 57:07And I agree.
-
57:07 - 57:12- Yeah.
- (Q6) Hi. So, going back to 'seppe Peano, -
57:12 - 57:13my question is
-
57:13 - 57:19which is the influence
of the Axiomatic Theory of 'seppe Peano -
57:19 - 57:21on the Axiomatic...
-
57:21 - 57:25No, just joking.
-
57:25 - 57:31- That's a very interesting question because...
- 'seppe Peano invented... No, I'm not finished. -
57:31 - 57:34'seppe Peano invented a language you know....
- Title:
- Polyglot Conference Budapest 2013 - Anthony Lauder "PolyNot"
- Description:
-
Looking for willing volunteers to write captions for this video. Please get in touch, if you can spare the time to do this. Would be very grateful! :)
Anthony Lauder talks about being a PolyNot and how they are different to Polyglots. So how does a PolyNot become a Polyglot? Czech out his channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/FluentCzech
If you need any further information, please do let us know by writing a comment below and joining us on Facebook and Twitter:
Facbook.com/PolyglotConference
@PolyglotMeetup
PolyglotConference.org - Video Language:
- English, British
- Duration:
- 57:38
jblinguaphile commented on English subtitles for Polyglot Conference Budapest 2013 - Anthony Lauder "PolyNot" | ||
jblinguaphile edited English subtitles for Polyglot Conference Budapest 2013 - Anthony Lauder "PolyNot" | ||
jblinguaphile edited English subtitles for Polyglot Conference Budapest 2013 - Anthony Lauder "PolyNot" | ||
jblinguaphile edited English subtitles for Polyglot Conference Budapest 2013 - Anthony Lauder "PolyNot" | ||
jblinguaphile edited English subtitles for Polyglot Conference Budapest 2013 - Anthony Lauder "PolyNot" | ||
jblinguaphile edited English subtitles for Polyglot Conference Budapest 2013 - Anthony Lauder "PolyNot" | ||
jblinguaphile edited English subtitles for Polyglot Conference Budapest 2013 - Anthony Lauder "PolyNot" | ||
jblinguaphile edited English subtitles for Polyglot Conference Budapest 2013 - Anthony Lauder "PolyNot" |
jblinguaphile
I just finished syncing and polishing the English subtitles for this video. I thought it was a great talk, so I wanted to do my part to contribute to more people being able to enjoy it and learn from it.
I'd love to see Mandarin subtitles for this someday. I'm learning the language, so I'm not qualified to do them myself. Just throwing it out there as a suggestion, should someone with the time and motivation stumble across this comment. :o)