flash cards suck and I'm going to tell you why that is it's obvious to me that a ton of people find flashcards helpful and it's clear that they do have some benefit what they don't have is the best benefit they are not the best thing Jesus Christ why why apps are not the best thing memorizing words word list without context is not the best thing yes it's going to help but paying attention to anything if you throw a ball at a basketball net like this all the time eventually it will go in and you'll get
better at doing this but if you watch Steph Curry and shot like him you'd probably do better it's the same thing with flash cards now I will say this I do think that there is a way to incorporate flash cards so if I haven't scared you away because you love flash cards so much wait till the end of this video we'll have something for you but for those of you that are just utilizing the traditional method of memorizing word list and hoping that by memorizing all these words that you're eventually going to speak it's just
there is a better way repetition is the key to learning if you don't see the words a lot you will not be able to incorporate them into your subconscious mind which is truly where you're going the problem with flash cards is that you learn them out of context and that you hope to then pull them up as an isolated event just like you would pull up an answer like what's the capital of Japan Tokyo boom got it give me five points Alex Alex tbec is not the host of Jeopardy anymore it's the girl from Blossom
in order for you to get some use out of the words that you're learning you need to have them attached to sentences and then Concepts and then situations when you can build out all of those what you will then have is a feeling you are chasing a feeling a feeling that will then allow you to vomit out those words without you having to think if you spend your time memorizing lists in the hope that because you have a familiarity with these words when you're in a perfect conversation you will be lacking all right you will
have a a mismatch to your flow there will be a lot of in congruencies I have friends who have done this in the traditional method the one that we learn in school which makes us try to learn all the rules of a language and memorize words I blame this for most people's love of flash cards and utilizing them it's not to say that they're not a good supplement they can be a good supplement and the best way for you to make them a supplement is to do something that I have termed artificial immersion this is
the core of my learning method immersion of course being the best way to learn a language it's not possible for most of us you move to another country you're surrounded by the language you interact every day with those people you see signs in that you watch TV in that everything around you is in that language now I had a discussion with Elanor dicki who is an incredible linguist where we discuss the fact that even in an immersion setting it's not guarant guaranteed to make you learn the language and so some of you guys who are
saying I can't learn this language because I'm not in Spain or Japan China Italy Germany wherever it is you don't have to wait until you were there and just because you're over there doesn't mean you will learn the language millions of people have moved to other countries and different places what ends up happening is that they spend their time either now speaking in English or around a group of people who speak their language and they don't get out of their comfort zone this is why artificial immersion must become a key factor in your life so
maybe you're making the jump to think that phrases and memorizing things from phrase books would be a better thing to do wrong I'm not saying it it won't help and I'm not saying I don't utilize it once again I'm not saying you can't get any benefit from flash cards what I'm saying is that there are other things and just like if you bought a phrase book you can get some here's how to use a phrase book in the best way find the phrases in the situations where you would find yourself in I'm hungry I need
to eat how do I go left right whatever phrases should be used as a primer they are used to get you more input the whole reason for the phrase is simply to get you comfortable with the situation you get to choose you get to say where is the bathroom now you know that that answer is going to be a point he's going to say a word he's going to say left right straight behind you something like this and now you can interact with the language hopefully with the context you you've got that basic understanding down
and then you can say thank you can say you're welcome and then you can move on that's a great way to continue to engage in the language and I push everybody to do that that's the good use of a phrasebook but as the base of your language learning at the beginning it should not be at all now here's where we can Implement all of those things that we need because the majority of you will not be in a position where the language is constantly around you you will have to create a world for yourself you
will have to artificially immerse yourself in the world that you want what does that look like and what would it look like if we wanted to include flashcards into our learning process all of these things must be included in your artificial immersion setting reading podcast series films short clips conversations simple conversations with a tutor with friends and things that you are going to be able to understand review rehashing and recalling alone being able to talk to yourself as well and then finally you would want to include something like the flash cards and there is one
caveat one huge caveat all of these things have to be around one entire setting one thing one situation this is how you actually create that world let's make this concrete and say you are learning French if you are a complete beginner you need to find material that is almost Almost 100% comprehensible to you that could be podcast I've talked about pimsler in the past there are YouTubers there are small programs and series that are created for the basic French learner we can link to some of those below you have to use these now once you
get just past that beginner stage here's how you can create a world for yourself that you'll actually be excited about once you just past the beginner stage you're you're walking into that intermediate stage you've spent all that time listening Reading Writing really truly getting a grasp on the language ail of course is also an excellent uh material for you to use during this time and you can make it to a series or a show I would suggest something like Peppa Pig I know it sounds crazy but if you start checking around you're going to see
a whole host of people who are using Peppa Pig just to learn languages the reason for that is this there there is a ton of material out there for Peppa Pig you can watch a simple Peppa Pig story that might be 3 to 5 minutes you can then find the transcript or the book with pictures of Peppa Pig so you could listen to it even if you're not watching you can watch it and see the context and see the situations and then when you're going to your lesson you're going to have a tutor 1 hour
tutors are not there to teach you a language tutors are there for you to test your level and to slowly continually give you guidance and put in and check here and there do not pay for a tutor to teach you the language they can't it's all on you it's still it's it's always on you all right you get to discuss what you learned what you heard what you saw all from Peppa Pig now if you want to then incorporate your flashcards take the words in Peppa Pig that you originally do not understand and do not
know and then you use those to go through to flash through to get more and when you look at the words and when you look at flash cards you should never just be thinking about the word you should be feeling and thinking about the cont text behind it the situation behind it it should have feeling are you happy sad are you upset what was going on what was the whole sentence from the word what did she say did she say it loud quiet whisper it Etc just using flashcards like this like I said at the
beginning are stupid they don't have all the rest of that context within them you have to create that for yourself now one way that I did this in order to continually improve on my French and will continue to do so song a famous French series it's on Netflix three or four seasons maybe this is the book there's podcasts talking about it there's stuff with the actors talking about it I go live in that world and then you completely immerse yourself once again artificially because I don't live in France I'm not in the TV show that's
not my world but I do that and take that obviously minus the flash cards for me because I don't find them to be necessary I think it's better for you to once you understand and can understand a full text a full paragraph and all the things going on is to just then repeat that every once in a while I of course I will write things down and you can write and jot your thoughts down but there's no need for me to spend a whole separate time writing flashcards or using them on anky anky whatever Everyone
likes to use them I don't like to use digital things sole purpose of the fact that when I can stare at a screen which is over here I can think about the soccer game that I'm playing even though the screen is flipping onto the next I can think about a million other things it's very hard for you to write and think about something different at the same time it's possible but you have a tendency to pay attention and to really get into your learning I think that's where we're going to end it today I've said
what I need to say about flash cards if you want to use them please at least try to put in some more effort it's not a Magic Bullet it's not going to do everything for you you have to do it click the links right down below if you want to get a hold of our course where we break down the first 4 weeks which then gives you everything you need for the first 3 months of language learning click the link right down below and check it out we will see you guys later much love and
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