LrHWKSI9OqY.srt

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Hello everyone,
this is the lane focus channel.

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My name is Paul.
Thank you for tuning in.

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Okay.
When refining and improving your own 

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approach to learning languages,
it's always great to look at people who 

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have done it before.
People have already done it very 

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successfully and model what they're 
doing,

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copy what they're doing,
copied their strategies for learning and

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their approach to learning,
their attitudes,

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to learning all of those things.
I've met a lot of people who are great 

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with languages while traveling and also 
in my regular life and I'd like to talk 

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about a couple of particularly 
impressive people that we can learn 

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something from now.
This goes back to my first time visiting

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Egypt in 1997.
I was in a backpack of resort called the

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hub and I met a number of Bedouin girls 
who were there just selling bracelets 

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that were selling little trinkets,
souvenirs to tourists like me.

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We would go and sit on the beach and 
these little beach side restaurant,

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a cushions laid out on the beach.
People would serve you food and these 

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better when girls would just wander in 
off the street and try to sell us 

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bracelets.
Now what was interesting was I sat there

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and I watched these girls switch between
multiple different languages in the 

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space of like five minutes.
I would give them,

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speak English with lots of people.
Then they would switch to French without

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skipping a beat and then they would 
switch to Spanish.

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They would switch to Italian,
they would switch to Hebrew,

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they would switch to numerous different 
languages.

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German,
uh,

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I think I even heard them speak Korean 
and Japanese now.

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I was wondering how would these young 
girls,

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like eight year old bedouin girls who 
probably don't have much education,

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how would they be able to speak eight 
different languages or 10 different 

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languages or whatever it was.

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So that got me thinking about what makes
them successful and great with 

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languages.
So how do they do it?

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How do these eight year old Bedouin 
girls learn languages way better than 

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your average college student in the 
Western World?

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Well,
I think there were three main areas that

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I identified that we can learn from when
we look at these girls.

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The first one is obviously their 
motivation,

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right?
They have a strong economic incentive to

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learn that language.
They come from a poor background.

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They live in a poor area or your only 
source of income.

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Their source of their livelihood is 
tourism.

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They have to speak foreign languages in 
order to get by and the more languages 

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they can speak,
the more potential customers they can 

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communicate with,
the more money they bring up,

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so they have that economic incentive.
Most of us living in the west,

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we already have quite a cushy existence.

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We can't quite imagine what it's like to
have that economic motivation to learn.

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One of the interesting things I've heard
about these young kids who are selling 

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souvenirs is that they're not allowed to
go home to their house until they sell a

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certain amount of souvenirs.
They can't go home and have dinner until

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they sell 20 bracelets or something like
that.

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So imagine that they have that positive 
incentive of making money,

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but they also have that negative 
incentive of being punished basically 

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for not selling enough.
So that really motivates them to just do

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whatever it takes.
Right.

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So they have no excuses,
they make no excuses for themselves,

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they just go out and do it because they 
have to.

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They really have choice.
So they find whatever it takes,

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whatever resources they have inside 
themselves to learn.

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Now that's quite different from your 
average western person who whines and 

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cries and says,
I can't learn languages.

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It's too hard.
It takes too much time.

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I have to study.
I want to watch TV instead of these kids

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actually go out and just do it because 
they have no choice.

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And if you decide to do that,
you can do that too.

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So that's one thing we can learn from 
them.

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It's not only these better when kids 
either.

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I mean in other developing countries 
I've been to.

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I've noticed the same thing when I was 
in Cambodia,

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when I was in Indonesia when I was in 
Thailand.

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People who just have that economic 
incentive,

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they don't have the same mental blocks 
toward learning languages that people 

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enrich countries do.
They just do whatever it takes.

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They have that survival mentality and 
they just go for it.

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The second thing is that they're skilled
are based in practical experience right 

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from the start.
They're not sitting at home or sitting 

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in a classroom getting kind of 
theoretical experience or simulated 

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experience.

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They're out there getting real 
experience face to face with people 

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using the language right from the start.
Now that's different from the way most 

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of us learn.
We might learn from textbooks or in a 

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classroom.
We're learning theoretically in a 

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simulated sort of context and then later
when we have a certain level of the 

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language,
we go out and try to apply it with real 

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people.
That's kind of how most of us tend to 

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learn languages or typical people in the
western languages,

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but these kids,
they go out right from the start and 

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they're getting that experience now.
Why is that good?

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If you're at home studying with a book 
or you're in a classroom listening to 

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your teacher and looking at the 
Whiteboard,

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you're getting some sort of visual 
input.

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You're getting some auditory input to 
some extent.

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You're using those learning modalities,
but you're not really getting as much 

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hands on kinesthetic experience of 
actually using the language and feeling 

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what it's like to use the language and 
when you get out there in the real 

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world,
in a real situation,

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it's very visually stimulating because 
you're looking at an entire scene 

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surrounding you.

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You're seeing different things.
You're seeing,

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you're hearing the real sounds of an 
interaction that you have the real world

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around you.
It's not a simulated experience like you

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get with your textbook at home or in a 
classroom.

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You're out there in the real world and 
also you are getting the kinesthetic 

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experience so you know what it feels 
like to use the language and you get a 

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certain emotional feeling when you 
interact with that person and you also,

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you can feel physically what it's like 
to use your body language and to 

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actually physically interact with that 
person you're communicating with.

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Now all of that creates a kind of a kind
of memory and experience that includes 

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all of those different learning 
modalities and it's much easier to 

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remember than when you're learning just 
from a book or from the classroom.

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I can remember experiences that I had 
using languages years and years ago.

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I remember I have a memory of a 
situation 15 years ago in Jerusalem when

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I was there studying Hebrew and Hebrew 
course.

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An acquaintance of mine came into the 
room and he said,

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what most of the MTA when I was studying
and and that means you're not finished 

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yet.
And I said,

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Lord,
mostly empty.

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And they buy.
That means,

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no,
I'm not finished yet.

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I'm in the middle of studying.
I remember that interaction and I 

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remember the whole scene.
I can see that room and I can see him 

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come into the room and I can hear the 
intonation in his voice and I remember 

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kind of feeling taken aback by it.
The way he said it.

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It sounded like,
what?

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You're an idiot.
You're not finished yet.

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It was that kind of intonation.
So I remember that whole feeling of the 

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experience.
Now that's the benefit of going out into

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the real world and really using the 
language.

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You're encoding it into your physiology,
right?

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It's a kinesthetic experience that you 
can recall as a memory.

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The memories are more powerful than 
memorization.

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That's how I like to think of it.
Now,

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the third thing that these girls do well
is that their use of the language is 

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very functional and it's goal oriented.
They're not just learning the language 

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for the sake of learning it.
They're not just learning it so they can

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say,
Hey,

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I'm fluent in 10 languages.
It's not an ego based approach to 

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learning.
They don't feel like they have to learn 

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absolutely everything about the 
language.

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What is their goal?
Their goal is to sell.

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That's their main function or main point
for using that language and that's what 

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they focus on when they're learning.
So basically they want to sell to you 

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and they're following a straight line 
from meeting you to selling to you.

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The line ends when you buy something,
all of the language they learn is 

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basically just language.
They need to follow that straight line 

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and they can veer off the line a little 
bit and have a little bit of chatting 

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time with you and they can ask some 
questions about where you're from and 

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they can talk to you about some casual 
topics,

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but when they get too far off of that 
line too far away from their focused 

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goal of selling to you,
then they probably aren't that good at 

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communicating because that's not the.
That's not where they focus their 

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studying and focus their attention.
So they'll always bring their attention 

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back to that straight line of trying to 
sell to you.

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Right.
And all of their language is focused 

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around that.
So that's basically why they can speak 

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10 different languages at such a young 
age because they're not learning 

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absolutely everything about the 
language.

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They're learning the grammar and the 
structure of the language basically.

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And they're learning the basic 
vocabulary of language.

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Everything they need to sell to you and 
to communicate with you and chat with 

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you and build rapport with you.
And that kind of thing,

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but if you start talking about widely 
divergent subjects that have nothing to 

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do with the sale and nothing to do with 
getting to know you well enough to make 

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the sale happen,
then they're not going to be that good 

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with the language.
So basically they're very focused on 

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what they're using the language for and 
they have the basic structures of the 

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language in place.
So if in the future if they needed to 

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learn it for a different function,
they can always add that extra 

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vocabulary,
add those extra structures that they 

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need on top of what they already know.
But they don't try to learn everything 

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at once.

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They just learn what they need.
Right.

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So in terms of your study,
think about what you need to use the 

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language for.
You really need to learn absolutely 

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everything about the language or do you 
just want to use it for a specific 

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purpose?
Like getting to know friends,

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like making some friends,
being social in that language.

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Do you need to use it for a specific 
business purpose?

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Do you need to write emails in that 
language?

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Whatever your purpose is,
maybe you should focus on that rather 

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than trying to tackle the entire 
language in one big goal.

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Now it's also worth pointing out that 
these kids don't really worry about 

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perfection at all.
A lot of them speak with kind of funny 

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grammar.
They don't speak accurately,

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but they communicate.
They understand you,

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you understand them,
so it's all good.

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They can achieve that goal that they 
have for the language.

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Now,
the benefit that has for learning is 

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that you don't slow yourself down.
You don't put yourself into a bit of a 

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panic worrying about all the details and
worrying about perfection.

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Being a perfectionist can puts you in 
into a non ideal learning state.

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It can make you stressed,
right?

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Anxiety and stresses the antithesis of 
learning.

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You want to avoid it like the plague,
always relaxed.

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You can continue improving your accuracy
and continue to self monitor and fix 

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your your mistakes and all that,
but don't worry about it.

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Just keep on learning and keep your goal
in your functions for the language in 

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mind,
just like these girls do and you'll 

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learn a lot better.
So what can we learn from the eight year

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old Bedouin kid?
Well,

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number one is no whining,
no excuses,

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just go for it.
Find what motivates you and do it.

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Number two is get real experience from 
as early on as possible.

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Don't do all your studying and simulated
experiences,

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simulated situations.
Don't do all your studying with books.

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Get real experience with real people as 
early as you can.

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And the third thing is,
know your main purpose for learning the 

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language.
Do you really need to know absolutely 

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everything about the language?
Do you just want to make friends in the 

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language?
Do you want to use it for a specific 

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purpose?
Focus on your purpose for that language 

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and put your attention there.
Then later in the future,

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if you need to add extra functions and 
extra purposes for the language you can,

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but focus on what you need it for and 
that will really accelerate your 

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learning because you're not paying 
attention to things you don't really 

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need to do.
So if you ever think that you can't do 

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it,
that you can't learn a language that 

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you're not good with languages or 
whatever.

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Just remember all those kids in 
developing countries who learn languages

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quite well because they,
they just go for it and they have no 

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mental block to learning it,
so if they can do it,

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you can do it.
Don't even stress just to go for it.

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Alright,
this is Paul.

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Thank you for watching.
Have a good night and see ya.

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Hello everyone.
Thank you for tuning into laying focused

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TV.
I am your host Paul,

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and tonight we're going to talk about 
the difference between informal and 

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formal language and which one you should
focus on learning when you're learning a

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new language.
Another awesome benefit of meditation 

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for language learning is that it helps 
you with your listening comprehension.

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So when you're listening,
often there's something that's blocking 

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you are getting in your way.
Now what I mean is this.