Interview of the Week: Steve Kaufmann
Feb 24th, 2010 | By Ginette | Category: English, Interviews
What are your personal top three tricks and tips when learning languages?
1. Do not rely on a teacher. Decide that you are going to discover the language on your own. Language learning is like a walk through an unknown forest. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open and notice what is happening in the language.
2. Focus on listening and reading and building up a vocabulary of words and phrases. Do not try to speak right away, as this is unnecessarily stressful. You have little to say and people are not interested in hearing you stumble around in their language.
3. You will know when you are finally ready to speak. From that point on, just speak and do not worry about mistakes. Do not ask for or expect corrections. You will forget most of them right away. You have to watch for your own gaps, and search for the right patterns when you listen and read.
What is your favorite word of all times and why?
Конечно, which is Russian for "of course". Whichever language I am learning, I enjoy saying the words of positive affirmation. It inspires me, and gives me something to practice the sounds of the language with. Bien sûr, por supuesto, もちろん、当然，ja visst, certo, and so forth. These are great words to repeat to oneself. I must say that right now the sound of конечно is my favourite, and I love saying it with relish and panache.
What was the funniest situation with a linguistic misunderstanding you ever encountered?
At an early stage in my Cantonese learning, I was at a dinner with a group of people. I wanted to show off, and tried to order 12 spring rolls. The only problem is that I ordered 12 "chun doi" instead of 12 "chun gun". "Chun gun" are spring rolls but the words I used, "chun doi", literally translated as spring bags, is Cantonese slang for "penis". There was a brief silence followed by laughter. We did get the spring rolls though.
In your opinion, what is the sexiest accent and what is the reason for it?
To me it is not languages that can be sexy, but rather women. Any woman's voice speaking a language elegantly, intelligently, and confidently about a subject that she knows well, is sexy to me. If that language is a foreign language, and one that I understand, this is doubly sexy.
Which language teaching product / service / method / gadget … has impressed you the most and why?
It has to be the MP3 player, which then expanded into the iPod, iTunes, iPhone and now iPad phenomenon. The ability to easily access all kinds of language content, both audio and text, and to manage it, and carry it with you wherever you go, is simply revolutionizing language learning. You can have a language lab, media library and walking language course in your pocket. There is lots more to come. We ain't seen anything yet.
About the author :
Steve Kaufmann is a former Canadian diplomat, graduate of Sciences Po in Paris, who has had his own company in the international trade of forest products for over 20 years. Steve is the founder and CEO of LingQ.com an online language learning system and Web 2.0 community. Steve speaks eleven languages, having recently learned Russian at LingQ. Steve maintains a blog on language learning, and has written a book on language learning called The Linguist, A Language Learning Odyssey. Follow Steve on Twitter@lingosteve.
Very interesting answers Steve, thanks for sharing
I find it funny that the way I answered the same questions a few weeks ago is basically giving the opposite advice
I have the impression that you are a happy and successful polyglot. Each person has to find his or her own way. I think it also depends on your goals.
Very well said Steve. Your approach is way more desirable when the goal is in-depth familiarity with mastering a language and speaking it articulately in the long-term. I focus on speaking asap, and making progress through pure practice, with less professional goals of conversation such as among young people in parties/milongas etc. (who have never seemed to mind my stumbles).
As you say, each person has their own way, and I am indeed a happy polyglot
I don’t think either of our approaches would work with the other person very well. You are definitely the greater linguist and know your stuff to a greater level than me. However, I’m a language-hacker; definitely not a perfectionist. I break a problem up into chunks and speed through them to reach a very specific target, which eventually expands towards fluency at a street-level rather than academically recognised one – definitely not something for everyone 
If you have a chance to glance over any of my blog posts you’ll see what I mean. I’d be interested in chatting with you some day to discuss this further.
Go n-eirí an bóthar leat (Irish blessing)
XXX*! Shame on you Steve! 11 languages?! Well, I would say 1 or 2 + mercilessly butchering another 9 or 10. People like you make me feel like never study a foreign language. *This comment has been edited by Lexiophiles. All Lexiophiles users are free to state their opinion. However, we do not accept personal insults.
Benny,
Let’s try to connect and have a skype discussion about language learning which we can offer as a podcast. We could even do a series. I suspect that we will agree on a number of things, but also disagree on quite a few.
Steve
Sounds like a great idea Steve! I’m sure we’d have quite opposing views on a few matters, but openly discussing them could be interesting to both of us as well as definitely to readers of either of our blogs
I’m also definitely happy to find out the many things we agree on: one thing we definitely agree on is that learning languages is important and awesome
I couldn’t find a contact link on your site. If you click “Contact me” at the top of my site you can e-mail with your skype details I’ll add you. I probably won’t be able to talk for over a week; I’m quite busy for my last days in Thailand and then travelling, but we can discuss the best time for a chat by e-mail.
All the best!
Benny & Steve, that sounds like a great idea for a Podcast. I read both of your blogs and like both of your methods, and it’d be great to get an idea of what a ‘best-of-both’ method might be. I like Steve’s approach to getting a lot of input and not worrying too much about speaking at the early stages, but I’ve found it hard to resist speaking a little! It’s extremely rewarding to produce at least some output early on and I feel that it gave me a little extra motivation to keep studying.
I’d love to hear about how (and when) you go about learning idioms and slang usage, if at all? At the moment, I’m concentrating on the ‘academically correct’ form of Spanish as I figure it’ll be easier to ‘degrade’ my writing & speech when I’m eventually talking to natives in informal settings, as opposed to the other way around.
In any case, great review.
Hugo,
I do not understand what you are trying to say. What do you mean by butchering a language? Who is butchering a language? What makes you not want to study another language?
Can’t wait to listen to that podcast people! Just a word of caution to Benny: expect the worst from this person Benny. He’s running out of facts very quickly in a discussion and is not really a fan of freedom of speech, so be prepared to ad hominem attacks from the very start of your discussion. If you want an example just glance through his blog post comments. Not something to be proud of.
By the way Steve, your method is a bastardization of the Krashen’s input hypothesis, very wrong. You lack basic understanding of language learning by input. It is very irresponsible from you to give advice for something that you don’t really understand personally. I prefer Benny’s attitude and method.
Just something I forgot to mention in my previous comment… If you guys do decide to go ahead with this podcast idea, I’d also love to hear you discuss your views on Esperanto! I’m learning Spanish & Esperanto at the moment (although most of my time is spent with Spanish), and I have to say I find Esperanto fantastic. The idealist in me loves it for political / social reasons, but from a purely academic stand-point it also seems really refreshing to me (I love it’s way of forming completely new words).
I know Steve isn’t too keen on it (from his one youtube video on the subject anyway), and Benny learned it and seems to enjoy it. Just a thought!
I don’t know who Karl is but certainly welcome you all to my blog. There are many language keeners who follow the blog and regularly contribute.
As to who has the right to give advice on language learning, fortunately language learning is not a scientific formula, nor a recipe for a cake. It is largely a matter of personal experience and personal preference, and that is what makes exchanging views on the subject so interesting.
Gareth, as you know I am not interested in Esperanto and somewhat suspicious of “idealist” projects.
lol, funny comments here!
Thanks for everyone supporting my method! As I said, Steve’s may be better than mine if the goal is an academic and professional level in a language, so I definitely agree with him that it is a matter of personal preference and experience.
However, for actually speaking it in the way most people would like to use languages (i.e. living in a country on a day-to-day basis, especially outside of professional life) I do feel that language-hacking (as I like to call it) is a much more desirable option.
I’m not interested in Esperanto because of idealism; it was easy to learn and the groups of people speaking it are amazing individuals. I have had amazing fun at Esperanto events and I always look forward to my next one! I learn languages to talk to people and Esperanto has widened my horizons even if I don’t believe it will take over the world or whatever.
@Gareth I don’t think discussing Esperanto would work because of our different purposes for learning languages. I’d rather discuss language learning approaches rather than defend particular languages etc.
@Karl I haven’t seen or heard Steve interview other people, so I’m not going to presume any nefariousness on his part. I also strongly defend my views in my site’s comments, but would talk with the same people in a different way if it was a one-to-one. Steve seems like a nice guy, even if I disagree with his approach when it’s to achieve certain goals. Besides, I’m Irish – if an argument started I’d be able to take care of myself
I’m sure we can have an interesting discussion that would expose each of us to ideas we hadn’t considered before, and spark some discussion among others too. As I said Steve, just contact me through the link on my site with your Skype details and we can arrange the discussion for some time this month.
Points on Esperanto taken. I probably worded my comment badly, but the ‘idealism’ wasn’t the main point I was trying to make… For me it’s also about meeting new people; the esperanto community, because of the very nature of it all, would seem to me to be the ideal way to meet a LOT of new people who share common interests. It also just so happens that the language is enjoyable to learn! In any case, I wouldn’t want time wasted on discussing the ‘reasons’ for esperanto existing in the first place (not that I don’t find the ‘idealism’ side interesting, it’s just that that’d be a whole different podcast
).
I’m a lot more interested in how you guys study the languages. I’m about to try a little project of my own as well… Basically, I’ve wasted so much time just sifting through the various websites, audio courses & books that are available that I’ve made only a fraction of the progress I’d hoped to make by now. So I’m going to ‘limit’ my resources and use them to completion (not to be mistaken for boring myself to death, I do find the materials interesting!), at least in terms of general study materials (I won’t be limiting other input, like novels, movies & other immersion techniques). Good luck with the podcast, get cracking!
Benny,
I do not know what you mean by the link on your site but my skypename is lingosteve.
What’s your problem Steve? You’re obsessed with idealism, ideals and stuff. Get a grip!
Thanks for all the comments. Please keep the tone of your comments friendly. Having different opinions is great, stating your opinion by personally insulting people doesn’t help anyone.
Ginette for the Lexiophiles team
I am suspicious of idealists because they tend to be quite intolerant of people who do not share their ideology. (like Peter and Karl here).I understand people who want to learn Esperanto or Navi because they like the sound, or their friend is into it. I even understand those who do it as a personal gesture of defiance in the face of the domination of English, like walking to work to save the world from global warming. These are fun things to do.
I am just allergic to the suggestion that these actions are noble. They are just interests, like collecting stamps. If taken too seriously they lead to distortions, minor ones like massive wind farms that are hard to maintain, make the existing power supply system less stable, and have little effect on global warming; or horrific distortions like the various “isms” of the 20th century.
I prefer to deal with people who have interests, in both sense of the word.
Money is your only ideal Steve?
p.s.
maybe that Carl is an idealist but i don’t understand how Peter is? Now I see what “ad hominem attacks” meant.
This is precisely why I don’t want to discuss Esperanto with Steve. I think he has a warped view of what it represents, stemming from the very core of how we approach languages; I approach them by speaking and try to see the human aspect of it. If I had only read about Esperanto in old encyclopedias, or jumped to conclusions without really delving into it, then I too would perhaps have a cynical view of the language and the community.
I really feel like correcting his gross confusion, but that would be way off topic so I think it’s best that we all drop the Esperanto discussion, since it would seem Steve is not going to change his mind any time soon.
I’m also disappointed to see encouragement for people to pollute by inferring that the global movement towards a clean environment is just a cute hobby; I don’t know where that came from in a discussion about languages! There is too much potential to open up a Pandora’s box of many things to argue about here.
This is also why I would like any recording made to be have pre-agreed strict restrictions in content otherwise we would just end up arguing since I can see that there are a lot of topics outside of language learning that we would never agree on and there would be no room for discussion. That would not be interesting for anyone involved.
At least with language-learning methods we both have some expertise. Frankly I have no interest in discussing opinions on concepts that one or both speakers would have no actual familiarity with; I’d rather discuss pure language-learning approaches and the potential results from them.
Thanks for your Skype Steve – I’ll get in touch with you when I’m off the road.
+1 for the podcast!
Honestly, that would be one of the most interesting things for me as I’m big fan of both parties’ method.
Btw, interesting comments here…
Sorry folks, didn’t mean to start a serious debate on this stuff… I should have just said “good interview” and been on my way!
Ben,
1) So your idea of a conversation is to call people’s views “warped”, and “gross confusion”. Interesting. No, I did not say that an interest in conservation or environmental protection is just a cute hobby, but rather that many aspects of it are faddish, without much sense of priorities, and with a great deal of intolerance, such as you exhibit here.
2) If we have a discussion I will talk about whatever subject is brought up in the conversation, which I presume will only be language learning. I will not, however, agree to any “strict conditions”.
3) You imply that your method “sees the human aspect” of language learning because you try to speak from the beginning. I, and many others, prefer to acquire vocabulary and familiarity with the language first, in a less stressful way, through listening and reading, before traveling. Is this less “human”?
I think that your “method” of traveling around the world and speaking to people is simply not practical for most people, nor necessary, nor really a method at all. Nor do I agree with your suggestions about cramming phrases before traveling. Language learning is, to me,a much more gradual process of letting the brain get used to the patterns and labels of a new language. This does not preclude speaking early if that is what the learner wants to do, but speaking right away is not a prerequisite. It depends on what people want to do.
As to your language skills, it is hard to judge. I have heard you read the same message in three closely related Romance languages in your video. I cannot judge your Esperanto or Irish. I do not believe that you can acquire enough vocabulary to carry on meaningful conversations in Czech or Thai in only 3 months. I would be interested to see you do this, not read a text, but actually carry on a conversation in these languages.
And Matt, I do not think you know what an ad hominem attack, but it usually reflects an unwillingness to discuss the issue at hand and a preference for insulting the person we are discussing with. A fine line, no doubt. Here are two examples for your reference.
“What’s your problem Steve? You’re obsessed with idealism, ideals and stuff. Get a grip!” (Peter)
“Money is your only ideal Steve?” (Matt)
No Matt, my interest is not “only money”, nor do I understand what justification you have for saying that. I have many interests including developing a learning community where people can easily learn up to ten languages if they are so motivated. I also write extensively on language learning at my blog, where I must say the comments are much more constructive than here.
For a discussion in Italian on one aspect of sudden immersion through travel and speaking, the following might be of interest.
http://bit.ly/bXRYOt
Sorry, wrong link. Here is the correct one.
http://lingqcentral-it.lingq.com/intercultura-pro-e-contro
Thanks for your responses Steve.
To answer your points:
* Sorry for suggesting strict conditions; as you say the flow of the conversation should be flexible. I don’t want to impose rules or anything, but I also don’t want to go off topic. I think if we simply stop ourselves from doing so it should be fine.
* Yes, it is more human to talk to people rather than study books. I should think that this was obvious. Talking to people is only stressful if the goal really is to speak at 100% perfection (which is almost never possible anyway). I am fully aware of the fact that I am making mistakes in early stages and being concious of this means that I simply don’t stress myself out. It’s a decision anyone can make if they apply themselves.
* I have to say that my level of intolerance is pretty much the same as or less than yours in these comments. There’s no need for that kind of comment, and I would hope you would avoid such statements in an audio discussion.
* My method isn’t exclusively travel-based. I have actually learned and maintained languages through other means such as by hosting Couchsurfers, going to language-enthusiastic meetings, or generally hanging out with natives living away from their home country. These can be done anywhere, but are still based on conversation rather than study. I study too, but for the purposes of improving my current conversation rather than for a distant future time.
* I respect your gradual-process commitment; as I said, this is a difference in priorities. I write for people interested in speaking, and I believe your goals are more important for someone interested in having long-term deep familiarity with a language. However I have also achieved such familiarity through immersion (as recognised by language authorities), and I find it extremely hard to believe that after years of pure study, one can suddenly speak perfectly the first day they decide to do so. Getting used to real conversations is essential, so I start with that.
* Judging one another’s language skills is not a good idea. I’m sure you would not be interested to hear my criticisms of your videos. Let’s leave that up to natives.
* Scepticism for my 3-month claim is understandable. However I confidently say that conversation and much more is very much achievable in that time following less conventional approaches. I’ll be documenting two 3-month experiments starting late March and I welcome you to check my progress.
I have read the negative points mentioned in that Italian text. It focuses quite a lot on how you “might” feel. Confidence is extremely important and I frankly tell people that they need to toughen up if they want to experience immersion and actually achieve something from it. The article also mentions people using the student to practise their English, and I encourage people to convince locals to help them. Most of the time you just need to ask. I never say that committed immersion is easy; tough decisions have to be made, but they give greater output in a shorter timespan.
The non-active approach presumes and embraces timidness. By getting out there and making mistakes and doing it right people gain the confidence they always presumed they would never have.
Benny,
Reading is a very human activity and a powerful way to acquire vocabulary. What is obvious to you is not even true to me.
Speaking with a native speaker when you have few words and therefore cannot say much, and do not understand what is begin said, is to me, and to many people, stressful. It is a formula for failure. It is also often quite annoying to the native speaker.
Most people, when thrust into a situation where they know they will fail, will simply withdraw. There are exceptions, and you may be one.
Benny,
I did not say that I would criticize your videos. Nor do I care if you criticize mine.
I merely said that I do not think that it is possible to converse on a wide range of subjects in Czech or Thai after 3 months in the country, just talking to people. I look forward to seeing your new videos and will of course leave it to natives to judge these videos, since I do not speak either of these languages.
It may be that you can do it, but I am convinced that most people cannot. They are better advised to spend a good deal of time getting up to speed in the language before they go to the country where the language is spoken. They are more likely to enjoy the experience. I think that is one of the important points in Adelberto’s article.
Steve,
I am convinced that it’s not just me that can do this and I blog to convince others that they can too. Every day I get comments from people saying that my suggestions are working wonders for them. I am adement that I am not naturally talented with languages, especially since the only language I spoke at 21 was still English, which I argue is closer to many people’s own situation.
Thanks for the follow-up comments. There is plenty for us to discuss in a podcast.
We are shutting down comments as we have gotten some very insulting remarks (which have been deleted). Language learning is supposed to be fun. Some people are misusing this blog as their ranting platform. We will not tolerate this behavior.
@Benny & Steve: Sorry that we are disrupting your discussion. We hope you understand.
For further discussion follow this link: http://lingosteve.posterous.com/benny-the-irish-polyglot
Andreas for the Lexiophiles team