has slowed or stopped,

even though you're still making a lot of effort?

That horrible feeling of

getting to an intermediate level

and then not improving

is often called the intermediate plateau

And in today's video,

I'm going to explain what it is,

why it happens,

and how to fix it

I want to start by showing you a chart

This shows the language ability

of people learning English

over a period of 60 years

As you can see, people's language ability

increases quickly at the beginning

and then starts to flatten over time

But here's the thing

The shape of the chart

is exactly the same for native speakers

In other words, this is something that happens

whether you learn a language as a baby or as an adult

So the first thing to know

is that the intermediate plateau

is a normal and unavoidable part of language learning

A big part of the reason

is the way that language works

Vocabulary in all languages

follows something called Zipf's Law,

which states that the most common word

is twice as common as the next word,

and that word is twice as common

as the next word, etc., etc.

It means that a tiny number of words

are used very frequently,

but the majority of words

are very infrequent

Just 100 words make up 50% of most English

But to get to 98%,

you need 10,000 words

The curve of Zipf's Law looks like this

Do you notice anything?

Let's put Zipf's curve next to the learning curve

Zipf's curve is the exact opposite of the learning curve

But why does that matter?

Well, to be able to use a word,

you need to be able to remember it

But unfortunately, our brains are really,

really good at forgetting

In 1880, the German psychologist

Hermann Ebbinghaus started

an incredible series of experiments

to test the way that our brain forgets information

For five years, he meticulously tested his own memory

using more than 2000 "nonsense words" that he created

The end result of his work

was The Forgetting Curve,

which has been confirmed by modern neuroscience

It showed that our brain

quickly forgets almost everything,

and the only way to stop it from forgetting

is with repetition

And this creates a problem

because to remember and use a new word,

you need to have multiple repetitions of that word

But, because of Zipf's Law,

most words are rarely used,

and this has serious practical consequences

This research

estimates that to have enough repetitions

to learn 1000 words per year,

you would need to read

for just 21 minutes per week

in the first year

But in the ninth year,

you would need to read

for more than 6 hours per week

In other words,

to continue increasing your vocabulary

in a linear way, you need to

increase your effort exponentially

Now, so far

we have only been talking about

individual words,

but we almost never use words in isolation

We use them together to create meaning

and to understand another cause

of the learning plateau,

we need to talk about pendulums

In 1931, the philosopher Dji-Lih Kao

conducted a series of simple but

brilliant experiments using a pendulum

This is a basic recreation of how it worked

The experiment tested three different skills

The first skill was timing

The pendulum was released

and the participant had to hit it

at exactly the right moment

to knock over a target

Ahhh... to slow....

Okkkkaayy... and....

ahh... too slow...

Yessss...

The second skill was direction

The participant had to hit the pendulum

towards a target at a particular angle

No...

...noooo...

Yessss.....

The third skill was force

The participant had to hit the pendulum

with just enough force

to stop in a specific place

Now, here's the genius part of the experiment

The participants were divided into two groups

In the first group,

they learned the three skills separately

and then had to combine those skills

into a single action at the end

The second group learned to do

all three skills together

as a single action from the beginning

And guess what?

She found that the first group

which learned the skills separately

and then tried to combine them,

had long learning plateaus

And the second group didn't have any

But this doesn't just happen with pendulums

Recent research has shown

that the same thing is also true for language

Learning the skills of language like

grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation

separately results in worse learning

This is one of the reasons why many courses,

workbooks, and exams are so damaging

because they divide language up into little pieces

in exactly this way

And they rarely give you the opportunity

to use all your language skills together

Please don't underestimate

the consequences of this evidence

If you are waiting until you have

more input or better pronunciation,

or waiting until you know more vocabulary

or grammar before you start actually

combining those skills

and using your English to communicate,

you are creating the perfect conditions

for a learning plateau

which will make the learning process

slower and longer

And this brings us to the most important part of this video

The reality of being an adult language learner

You might not like to hear this,

but the truth is, you will probably be

in this plateau for a long time,

for years,

maybe decades

And some of you will never escape the plateau

But that doesn't mean you're a bad learner

During this video, I have shown you

how linear growth in your English

will require exponential effort

And it's time to ask yourself

if that's actually realistic

Adults generally have a lot of responsibilities,

like work, family, and friends

and all of those things

take time, focus, and energy

You probably don't have an unlimited

amount of time to spend on your English

Now's the time to be really honest with yourself

because there's nothing

that will destroy your success faster

than unrealistic expectations

I'm not exaggerating when I say that

the most important aspect of successful language

learning isn't study or practice

It's mindset

But this is not a negative moment

You are probably so focused on improving,

you haven't stopped to realize

how amazing you are

The plateau

that you are traveling in

is an amazingly beautiful place

It doesn't mean that you should stop moving forward,

but you should not ignore the beauty

of your surroundings

If you can understand this video,

that is a remarkable achievement

You can understand another language

You can do something

that most people only dream of

If you can communicate in English,

even if it is only in a basic way

that is a gift

and a superpower

that you should be proud of

Language ability is not something that you can buy

You have to earn it

So please take a moment

to congratulate yourself for all your hard work

We live in a world of more, more, more,

where we are surrounded by people

and promises that make us feel

like we are missing out on something

We are always looking up

and imagining that the people up there

are happier than us

But I promise you

that they suffer from the same anxieties

and fears as you

It's okay to be intermediate

It's enough

Remember that

the only important measure of language ability

is successful communication

Don't be afraid of being stuck at intermediate

Be afraid of wasting the gift of language

in the search for more

I'm Christian

This is Canguro English,

and I'll see you in class

[Music]