Transcription
What's up, grinders? Welcome back to the channel.
Okay, so I just finished filming my 1,000-hour Dreaming Spanish update. That's right, boys. We've hit that [ __ ] magic number, but you're all going to have to wait a day or two in order to actually watch that video because I'm doing some collabs with other YouTubers to give some good content for that video.
But here's an interesting thing, okay? I did a collab with one other YouTuber where he tested me, obviously in Spanish, on my ability to understand the language by throwing out more and more complex questions. And then we swapped to full-on me trying to, for the first time ever, after 1,000 hours of speaking, well, not speaking, actually, just listening. But for the first time ever, trying to speak Spanish after 1,000 hours, my Spanish, are you ready for it? Was [ __ ] abysmal. Goddamn terrible. It was atrocious. It was so bad. I swear to God they're going to revive the Spanish Inquisition to deal with it. Okay, it was really, really bad. It was like some type of bastardization between Argentinian wannabe Spanish with Esbranto that was repeated and heard by some dude who thought Spanish was something that unicorns grunted out of Africa. I don't know. It was bad. Okay. Like I could see it in the eyes of my teacher. He was like, "Good, you know," type of thing. Like it was bad.
But here's the thing. I actually don't care. And I know you guys are going to have a field day with that one down in the comment section. I know I'm going to be ripped to shreds over it. And people are going to have it like a fight over it. They're going to be like, "Bra, what the hell? After 1,000 hours, this is how you... What are you doing? What are you doing?"
Now, obviously, I am testing a methodology, okay? But still, even outside the scope of that, I really don't care. Do you know why I don't care? Because, well, I still get shitty comments about my Chinese until this day. Like, people still comment down in the comment section, be like, "Bra, what are you doing? That sounds so [ __ ] English-like. What are you doing?" Or like, "Um, you're pronouncing the tones in this word over here wrong. What are you doing, bro? You're so [ __ ]. Why are you making videos about languages?" Funny enough, I, I even get them in Esbranto. Very rarely these days, but I still get them in Espiranto.
But here's the thing, okay? I don't care because I know with time and effort, I will get better. I know that sounds stupid. Like, "Well, obvious, bro. If you put in time and effort, you're going to get better." But I really want to repeat this because if you think about what I've been testing, this ALG, this automatic language growth method, like, why does it exist? But why, why is this method exist? Okay? Why do methods like Refold exist? Why do the Natural Approach? Why do all these different methods that like involve some type of silent period exist? It's because people are scared of speaking badly. That, that's literally it. Like, there may be some alternative excuses like, "Oh, maybe because they want to have perfect accents or something eventually," or there's some theory around how children, you know, operate, which is [ __ ]. But like, the realistically, if you look at it and you look down at the reason why people do these methods is because they are afraid that when they start speaking, they're going to say [ __ ] wrong and then they're stuck with it. That's it. Right. "Your Spanish is going to be espiran for the rest of your life. Good work on that one." You know, like, people are worried that they cannot correct stuff once they say it, which is actually [ __ ] bizarre when you think about it because with any other field out there, okay, people practice the things over and over and over again, okay? Like imagine if my fear as a programmer, well, as a wannabe programmer was the first day I sat down, I wrote code. If I wrote it bad, well, I'm [ __ ] that. That's it. I've fossilized it. I, I can't change that now. I'm always going to be writing like that. Okay? It's, it's absolutely bizarre and not based in any reality.
Which leads to this whole idea of fossilization. Could you imagine if people spoke about fossilization in the context of programming? "Oh, look at John over here. Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen his C++? He's fossilized at an A-level one C++ programmer. [ __ ] noob. Should have listened or watched a lot more C++ before he started trying to type." Like, that just sounds so stupid. Or like anyone who's like into like fitness or going to the gym. "Oh, bro just started picking up weights. He should have watched at least a thousand more hours of watching, you know, people pick up weights because, you know, now he's, he's fossilized a bad technique. He's stuck with that technique because, you know, he, he never saw someone how to do it before."
And like, I know some people might go down the comment section going, "Well, I've seen that. I've seen it." Like, there's people who, you know, they've been going to the gym for years and they're doing the weights wrong. Or someone who's been coding the exact same way for years and their code is actually bad. They haven't improved. But then why has this other person over here, they're [ __ ] like god-tier level as programmers? Or they're god-tier, you know, they're hired because literally they've got every single movement at the gym down pat. Okay? Or those people who speak a language, a second language, and they're damn near native level. What's the difference between those people and the people who seem to be stuck in some like fossilized state? This word that we love to use in this community. Okay. The difference is that one side just [ __ ] cared and the other didn't.
Like, there comes a point where we all as language learners need to make a decision. Do I keep burning more hours on this trying to iron out the creases? Or do I call it a day and say, "That's good enough"? When you call it a day and you say, "That's good enough," that is fossilization. It's not something like that you can't control. It's literally you making a decision that you will not improve more.
Now, if you think this is some unique thing to languages, no, I call [ __ ] on that. The reason being, okay, is if you watch my early Esbranto videos and you compare them to now, I am a different person. I speak different. I use different vocab. I sound [ __ ] different. Like, I constantly for years worked on my language, getting better and better and better at it. Okay? That, that's literally all I did. And if you look at anyone who's gotten to an insane level in a language, that's all they did. They, they've, they've hyper-focused in on for years, just every little crease, trying to iron it out. "How can I make this better?" Okay? Um, "What's the native say in this instance?" "Oh, okay. So, I'll do that." As opposed to, you know, the general person who, you know, for example, might immigrate to your country, learn enough to get around and talk with people and be like, "That's enough. I can do that. I don't need to sound like a [ __ ] movie star. I just need to be understood." Okay?
So fossilization is not something to be scared of. It's not even a real thing. It's literally just you deciding at some point, "Yeah, I'm not going to try anymore." And like, the whole accent thing is just bizarre in itself because like, I, I used to be an actor back in the day, you know, when I was less fat and had more hair. Um, you can find profiles of me online if you really want. But do you know what one thing actors do? Accent training. We literally learn accents. Okay? So there is a person whose job, they're usually an actor themselves, an experienced actor, whose job is to coach you into producing an accent and trying to make you sound like you're from another country. We literally have in a completely separate field where people are training themselves on accents. Okay? So this is not something that cannot be undone once you start. Sure, you make mistakes and you kind of like cement them in and it takes time to undo them, and I understand we want to avoid mistakes as much as we can as we're, we're moving forward through the language. And there are strategies around that. But at the end of the day, no matter what, you will make mistakes and you will fossilize those mistakes until you come back and fix them. But also, you shouldn't be worried about this because your goal, I'm assuming for most people, is to get to a point where you can use the language. Okay? Once you're at that point, then you can worry about all these little details. You can go, "Okay, well, I have this one problem where I pronounce the 'C' sound wrong for whatever reason. Maybe it's an influence of my native language. Everyone keeps pointing it out to me. I can choose to spend an obscene amount of time, you know, shadowing, practicing the sound, going to a coach, whatever, and get good at that. It makes no difference to people understanding me or not, but it's up to me if I want to do that." Okay? Or I keep using this structure, which is understandable to, you know, native speakers. They get it. They understand, but they, it's obvious, pick out. They realize that, ah, this is an influence from his native language. I could leave that or I can spend the time ironing it out and work on it. And it's, you have to make the decision for that.
No method, no strategy out there is going to solve this from day one for you. No matter what, you're going to have to go back time and time again, improve on what you do constantly. It's almost akin to writing a computer program. If you've ever written a big computer program, guess what you're going to do before that program is anywhere near complete? You're going to rewrite that thing [ __ ] 10, 20, 30 times. Eventually, what you have as the end product will look nothing like the original thing. But if you sat down from day one to write a perfect program, you probably never would have started.
Now, I know I've pulled on a lot of different fields here. I've spoken about acting and how they work on accents. And these people are adults when they're working on accents, okay? Some people get so goddamn good at these accents that just go to YouTube, look for an actor that does 20 accents. You'll be shocked by how good some of these people are. Okay? Or you've got the programmers who are constantly rewriting the code. That's you rewriting your understanding of the language. You got the people down at the gym, okay? The ones who have perfected the technique in order to maximize their muscles, but they didn't start like that. They learned over time. They figured out what went wrong. Okay?
Realistically, in the language community, we've got a whole heap of words that represent ideas like fossilization that are just [ __ ]. I don't know why we have these. Like, we're not special, okay? We're just like any other skill set out there. It just takes a long time to learn compared to most skills because, well, there's a lot of information to acquire. But with anything, time, practice, go back and honestly, people laughing at your abilities or whatnot, or you feeling offended by your own speaking abilities, bro. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. What matters is you actually make progress. So, work on the big things. Come back and iron out the details later.
Okay, cool. I hope that uh was in some way helpful for you all. Uh, if you've enjoyed this video, sub to the channel. Become a member if you really love me. If you love me really hard, and I'll see you all in the next video. And if you're not there, well then I'm going to fossilize your death.