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A guide to follow the right people who'll help you learn:
1. When it comes to technique, I think it's better when people stick to a single creator. Preferably one that has credentials as a teacher. On YouTube, there's plenty and they facilitate free content for their students as well. I think it's easier to keep track of your learning progress when you're seeing a single person explain things to you.
2. Booktubers: they typically have good pronunciation, precisely because they read a lot. A lot of them speak slower than their counterparts in other niches and since they're speaking about books, it's more likely the topics will be diversified because they're reviewing books, explaining to you the synopsis, etc.
3. Singers: people who sing also tend to have a good pronunciation. I would say, look for someone who's a content creator first, singer second. That sounds very specific but it could benefit you in the long run when it comes to your oral and listening skills.
4. People who do storytimes: I genuinely think that the best way of learning is through storytelling. This can look differently for everybody. For some people it's vlogs, for some is true-crime, for other is podcasts. Do whatever suits you.
Obviously the preferred platform is YouTube in this case, as I think TikTok doesn't help you process a lot of information and it can become overwhelming to be on the app, which worsens your will to learn.
Nov 19, 2024
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It’s very frequent that I recommend learning languages through YouTube videos on this account. I’ve already recommended some content creators, both in French and Italian, which are the languages I’m currently learning.
In case none of the suggestions I’ve made are of your liking, or you simply are learning some other language, I still want to leave a generic list of the type of people you could look for in the hopes of achieving fluency. This is intended for people who are self-taught and are just starting.
It’s important you look them up on YouTube. In my experience, short-form content is not very good for attention retention. besides, it's better when you stick to a limited group of people you could get familiarized with.
The first type of people you should look for, are vloggers. The advantage of said type of content is the fact that it tends to be repetitive, as the routines displayed go on loop video after video. Plus, you could get used to their personality, voice and accent, which could lead you to internalize aspects of the language better. It could also help you to amplify your views on cultural factors. Similarly, you could also go for podcasts.
The other type of content you should look for, is the one of magazines and journals. I suggest magazines because they are much more simplistic in their tone as their reach is generally more massive. For instance, you could look up Vogue (i.e. Vogue Italia, Vogue España, Vogue France, etc.), ELLE, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, etc. These are aware of the international platform they hold, as well as how varied their audience tends to be, so they typically do simple content surrounding stuff like fashion, makeup, house-tours, among other things that are relatively basic to any language in order to hold a conversation. It goes without saying, that you should also read their articles to improve and expand your vocabulary.
The third type of content creator I'm about to suggest is a bit screwed up. That is, people who locate themselves in the true crime genre. The reason I suggest this, is because they touch upon the routines of people frequently. I know not everyone feels comfortable interacting with that kind of content, but not everything is about bloody murder. Don't knock it until you try it.
Sep 23, 2024
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1. Learn the basic building blocks for your language of choice (i.e. pronouns, action verbs, common objects– literally the essential words you’d need to formulate the most basic sentences to communicate simple ideas). That can be done by googling things like “essential verbs in (insert language of choice here)” or “100 essential words to learn in _______.” Pair that up with any beginners grammar language book that you can take out from your local library. At this point, you don’t need to know how to speak the language, just have a general idea of how different elements come together to form coherent sentences.
2. Once you’ve acquainted yourself with those principles, the fun and most critical part comes into play: immersion. Since you’re not at the talking stage just yet, you need to treat yourself like you’re a baby hearing words for the first time and trying to associate meaning to them via their context. The best way I’ve found to do this is by watching kids tv shows in the language you want to learn and also finding YouTubers who are native speakers of that language. Turn on the subtitles and also keep them in the same language. This will allow you to start matching visuals with words and understand how sentences are composed in more organic ways. It will also force you to make language connections the way children do when learning their native tongue. You want to remove the buffer of thinking in your mother tongue and then translating the word in the new language. Instead, you want to start making immediate semiotic connections to the things you’re seeing. Like 🍎 is manzana in Spanish, but you wanna avoid thinking “oh that means apple in English which translates to manzana in Spanish.” It’s an extra loop you have to jump through that makes the language learning process less natural and more arduous imo.
3. In tandem to immersing yourself by listening to the language being used, here’s where you can start applying it bit by bit. This can be by either repeating the sentences you see in the tv shows you’re watching and start challenging yourself to write & say very basic sentences with your knowledge from step 1. In an ideal situation, having a friend or acquaintance who speaks the native language and can start talking with you is also incredibly useful since they can actively correct you while you practice. Though very beneficial, I know that that may not be an option for many people, so practicing on your own with the aid of the media you’re watching in the native language still works very well!
This is a very long response, but I hope that these suggestions can help create a more structured approach to learning your new language. Good luck!! ✨
Feb 19, 2024
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In general, my favorite translator ever is Reverso. For expressions and such, Reverso Context. For the most part, it's pretty accurate.
For English, Italian and French, I use Vanity Fair and GQ, as I learn vocabulary from the interviews and articles they publish. There are also different versions of things like Vogue and Elle in the languages previously mentioned, which is so useful. More often than not, the language employed is less formal than the tone they would use at a journal, so I feel like I can actually read the way people are expressing themselves in real time without it feeling outdated, or having people give you phrases no one ever uses.
In English I use Wordhippo a lot. You can do so much, even as a native, I think more people should use it. Great resource.
YouTube, of course. I love it and as I previously mentioned in some other answer to this ask, I like things that focus on the democratization of the internet, and in this case, educational resources. Say what you want about YouTube, but this is a pioneer of such task. Along the same line, Substack has been useful as well but it's a little bit more difficult to find a writer that doesn't speak English.
If you have more specific sites I could use, let me know <3
Jan 22, 2025
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