Now, the first thing about starting in a new language, we have to understand what's involved.

現在，開始學習一門新語言的第一件事，就是我們必須瞭解其中的內容。

So if we think that we're going to get into a new language by learning the grammar rules and learning lists of words and that somehow we're going to end up speaking or understanding the language, I think that will prove to be quite inefficient.

是以，如果我們認為通過學習文法規則和單詞表就能掌握一門新語言，並最終能說或理解這門語言，我認為這將被證明是非常低效的。

And I'm going to talk about inferential learning, learning which relies on the function of the brain, the ability of the brain to infer what's coming at it, what the sounds mean, what the words mean.

我要講的是推理學習，這種學習依賴於大腦的功能，依賴於大腦推斷所要表達的內容、聲音的含義、單詞的含義的能力。

The important thing about being able to infer anything is that we have to have something to refer to.

要想推斷出任何事情，最重要的是我們必須有參照物。

The only way we can infer is if we have a vast database of experience where almost without us realizing it, we are able to make an inference, which in some cases is correct and some cases is incorrect.

我們推斷的唯一途徑是我們擁有一個龐大的經驗數據庫，在這個數據庫中，我們幾乎在不知不覺中就能做出推斷，而這種推斷在某些情況下是正確的，在某些情況下則是錯誤的。

And when it's incorrect, that helps adjust our next inference.

如果不正確，這有助於調整我們的下一步推斷。

So that sounds a little bit theoretical, but I'm going to explain why that's important.

這聽起來有點理論化，但我會解釋為什麼這很重要。

It's important because learning a language and particularly a new language is not so much something we do deliberately, methodically, it's more a matter of exposing ourselves to the language, accumulating a background of reference points so that we can infer.

這一點很重要，因為學習一門語言，尤其是一門新語言，並不是我們刻意地、有條不紊地去做的事情，而更多的是讓我們自己去接觸這門語言，積累背景參考點，從而進行推斷。

I came to this issue of how our brain infers things because I was listening to Parse's podcast, I refer to it again, and he talked about inference and the importance of inference in terms of different means, in terms of explaining why we ended up with so many different types of religions, for example, or, you know, ethical systems.

我之所以會想到我們的大腦是如何推斷事物的這個問題，是因為我在聽帕爾斯的播客，我再次提到了它，他談到了推斷以及推斷在不同手段方面的重要性，例如，在解釋為什麼我們最終會有這麼多不同類型的宗教，或者，你知道，道德體系方面。

And sometimes these things are developed not deliberately.

有時，這些東西的發展並非刻意為之。

And he gave the example of what is sometimes called a spandrel, the space between an arc and a straight line, a ceiling, which is a design feature, but it's a byproduct of the fact that you have an arc and a straight line.

他舉了一個例子，有時也被稱為 "spandrel"，即弧線和直線之間的空間，天花板，這是一種設計特徵，但它是弧線和直線之間的副產品。

Birds who have feathers and therefore they can fly, but they didn't develop the feathers in order to fly.

鳥類有羽毛，是以能飛，但它們並不是為了飛才長出羽毛的。

They develop the feathers in order to stay warm.

它們長出羽毛是為了保暖。

And then I realized that this has application for language learning.

後來我意識到，這也適用於語言學習。

The things that you will do that will make you successful at starting in a new language won't necessarily be the things that you do deliberately, but they will be a byproduct of some of the other activities.

在開始學習一門新語言時，能讓你取得成功的事情並不一定是你刻意去做的，而是其他一些活動的副產品。

And what are those other activities?

其他活動是什麼？

Again, I will leave your references here in the description box.

同樣，我會在描述框中留下您的參考資料。

But apparently when they do MRI resonance imaging of the brain, it turns out the first thing we have to get used to in a new language is the sounds.

但顯然，當他們對大腦進行核磁共振成像時，發現我們在學習一門新語言時，首先要適應的是聲音。

And I can vouch for that because I have started from scratch in languages like Mandarin, in Japanese, in Arabic, in Persian, those were languages that were quite different from languages that I already knew and therefore I was totally starting from scratch.

我可以證明這一點，因為我曾從零開始學習國語、日語、阿拉伯語、波斯語等語言，這些語言與我已經掌握的語言截然不同，是以我完全是從零開始。

So my advice is it's perhaps less crucial if you know the writing system because you can pronounce it more or less, but especially if you don't know the writing system, I have found it very useful to focus very heavily on repeated listening, listening to a limited amount of content, getting your brain used to the language, getting to where you can actually tell where one word ends and the next word begins, because at first you just don't know.

是以，我的建議是，如果你知道書寫系統，也許就不那麼重要了，因為你或多或少都會發音，但尤其是如果你不知道書寫系統，我發現非常有用的做法是，集中精力反覆聽，聽有限的內容，讓你的大腦適應這種語言，讓你能夠真正分辨出一個單詞在哪裡結束，下一個單詞在哪裡開始，因為一開始你就是不知道。

It's just undifferentiated noise.

這只是無差別的噪音。

And it seems at first that you'll never get there, especially if the writing system is strange.

一開始，你似乎永遠無法達到這個目標，尤其是在書寫系統很奇怪的情況下。

But you have to rely on the fact that the brain will eventually start to infer based on the vast amount of data, of input, of sounds and eventually of the written language that it sees, and it'll start to infer what the meaning is.

但你必須相信，大腦最終會根據大量的數據、輸入、聲音以及最終看到的書面語言進行推斷，並開始推斷出其中的含義。

It'll start to infer what the next word will be, all of those good things.

它會開始推斷下一個詞是什麼，所有這些都很好。

But it just takes a long time.

但這需要很長時間。

So the progression that I see in starting a new language is, first of all, lots of getting used to the sounds, getting used to the individual sounds, getting used to where one word ends and the next word begins, getting used to the intonation, the cadence, the rhythm, the music of the language.

是以，在我看來，學習一門新語言的過程，首先是大量的習慣發音，習慣單個的發音，習慣一個詞在哪裡結束，下一個詞在哪裡開始，習慣語言的語調、節奏、韻律和音樂。

And that means a lot of repetitive listening.

這就意味著要重複聽很多遍。

As I've said before, don't listen to the same thing five times in a row because the brain craves novelty.

正如我以前說過的，不要連續聽五遍同樣的東西，因為大腦渴望新奇。

But you can listen to one thing, one little mini story, for example, two or three times, then move to the next and then the next and the next, go back to the first, intersperse it with reading.

但你可以聽一件事，比如一個小故事，聽兩三遍，然後換下一個，再下一個，再下一個，回到第一個，穿插閱讀。

But you need to do an awful lot of listening.

但你需要做大量的聆聽。

And if you look at my statistics at LingQ, you'll see several situations.

如果你看看我在 LingQ 的統計數據，你會發現有幾種情況。

If I can read, but it's a very different language, I do a lot of listening at first.

如果我能讀，但語言很不一樣，我一開始會做很多聽力練習。

If it's a language where the writing system is very difficult, then I tend to still do a lot of listening, but I spend a lot more time trying to decipher the writing system.

如果一種語言的書寫系統非常困難，那麼我往往還是會做大量的聽力工作，但我會花更多的時間去破解它的書寫系統。

As an example, Turkish, I can read it.

舉個例子，土耳其語，我能讀懂。

I don't know what it means.

我不知道這意味著什麼。

I listen a lot because I can make out the writing system.

我經常聽，因為我能聽出書寫系統。

Persian, you'll see that I delay intensive listening a little bit, whereas in some other languages I may delay the listening a little bit later because actually I understand what they're saying.

在波斯語中，你會發現我的精聽時間會稍稍延後，而在其他一些語言中，我可能會稍稍延後精聽時間，因為實際上我已經聽懂了他們在說什麼。

And I will do a lot of listening later on once I have accumulated more vocabulary.

等我積累了更多的詞彙後，我還會進行大量的聽力練習。

So you kind of need to develop a strategy that suits what you like to do and the languages that you already know.

是以，你需要根據自己喜歡做的事情和已經掌握的語言來制定策略。

But the objective, therefore, is once you have gotten some familiarity with the sounds, the next thing that you need to do, because the learning process is one of inferring, you have to provide yourself with as vast a reserve of things that you can draw from so that you find something in there that worked, a word, a structure that worked for you.

是以，我們的目標是，一旦你對聲音有了一定的熟悉程度，接下來要做的事情就是，因為學習的過程是一個推理的過程，你必須為自己提供儘可能多的儲備，以便你能從中汲取養分，從而在其中找到對你有用的東西、單詞和結構。

And you'll use that again.

你會再次使用它。

And so you'll gradually start retrieving from this vast reservoir of things that you have listened to or read or you're starting to notice certain patterns, certain structures.

是以，你會逐漸開始從這個巨大的寶庫中檢索你聽過或讀過的東西，或者你開始注意到某些模式、某些結構。

You gradually improve your ability to infer.

你會逐漸提高自己的推斷能力。

So, again, a lot of listening at first, then you mix that with a lot of reading.

是以，一開始還是要多聽，然後再結合大量閱讀。

The objective here is not that you should remember the grammar rules.

這裡的目的不是讓你記住文法規則。

You can review the grammar rules if you enjoy doing that and that it can help.

如果你喜歡複習文法規則，而且複習文法規則對你有幫助，你可以複習文法規則。

But you have to give your brain so much exposure to the language that the inferring by the brain becomes more and more accurate.

但是，你必須讓大腦大量接觸這種語言，這樣大腦的推斷才會越來越準確。

And it's a constant process.

這是一個持續的過程。

It's an iterative error correction process that eventually gives you a better and better grasp.

這是一個反覆糾錯的過程，最終會讓你掌握得越來越好。

Subconscious, again, it's not a deliberate process.

潛意識，同樣，這不是一個刻意的過程。

It's like the bird that can fly because it has feathers, although it wasn't a deliberate thing to add feathers so that it could fly, if you get my meaning.

這就像鳥兒會飛，因為它有羽毛，雖然它並沒有刻意去增加羽毛以便能飛，如果你明白我的意思的話。

Now, another thing that I discovered in my reading was that when we start something new, like a new language, we are inhibited by the fact that the brain likes stability as well as it has this ability to through neuroplasticity to learn new things, but it also clings to things that it knows well.

現在，我在閱讀中發現的另一件事是，當我們開始學習新的東西時，比如一門新的語言，我們會受到抑制，因為大腦喜歡穩定，它有能力通過神經可塑性來學習新的東西，但它也會固守自己熟悉的東西。

And I've seen this in learners who are reluctant to let go of, say, their native language patterns in their native language or moving from, say, Spanish to Portuguese.

我在一些學習者身上看到過這種情況，他們不願意放棄母語中的母語模式，或者不願意從西班牙語轉到葡萄牙語。

In my case, I found myself reluctant to let go of Spanish pronunciation and totally go into, you know, Portuguese pronunciation.

就我而言，我發現自己不願意放棄西班牙語發音，而完全採用葡萄牙語發音。

So there is this tug, push and pull between stability and our desire for stability and therefore hanging on to things that we are comfortable with.

是以，在穩定和我們對穩定的渴望之間，存在著這樣一種拉扯、推力和牽引力，是以，我們會固守我們所安於現狀的東西。

And yet at the same time, wanting to create new patterns, adopt, you know, new ways of saying things, which is then putting our neuroplasticity to work.

但同時，我們又想創造新的模式，採用新的表達方式，這就需要我們的神經可塑性發揮作用。

And so you have to be aware that this is happening.

是以，你必須意識到這種情況正在發生。

And I was aware of it, for example, when I learned the Cyrillic alphabet.

例如，我在學習西裡爾字母時就意識到了這一點。

What looks to someone familiar with the Latin alphabet, what looks to us as the letter P is pronounced R in Russian.

在熟悉拉丁字母的人看來，我們眼中的字母 P 在俄語中讀作 R。

And so even though you know that, but every time you see that, I still say P because it takes so long to let go of things that are kind of comfortable, apparently because of our desire to maintain some stability, some stable hold on things that we already know.

是以，儘管你知道這一點，但每當你看到這一點時，我還是會說 "P"，因為我們需要花很長時間才能放下那些讓人感到舒服的東西，這顯然是因為我們想要保持某種穩定，保持對我們已經瞭解的事物的某種穩定的控制。

So the ability to sort of suppress things that don't belong, suppress things from languages that you know well, you know, is one of the things that we develop a greater and greater ability to do.

是以，壓制不屬於自己的東西，壓制自己熟悉的語言中的東西，是我們不斷提高的能力之一。

Now, in terms of specifics of learning strategy, so learning Mandarin, for example, the first three months we used Romanized text, we listened to Mandarin, spoken at what I thought was a very fast speed, which subsequently I discovered wasn't all that fast.

現在，就學習策略的具體細節而言，以學習國語為例，前三個月我們使用羅馬化文本，聽國語，以我認為非常快的速度說話，後來我發現並不是那麼快。

But at first everything seems fast.

但一開始，一切似乎都很快。

And through that, I became familiar with the sounds of Chinese.

就這樣，我開始熟悉中文的發音。

I did that for three months before we attempted to learn characters.

在我們嘗試學習漢字之前，我做了三個月。

So I think that this exposure to the sound gives you a bit of a run into the reading, and I have done a video before where I talked about the importance of listening as sort of the starting point, because it triggers your interest in the subject matter, it gives you some momentum to your reading.

是以，我認為這種對聲音的接觸會給你的閱讀帶來一些啟發，我之前做過一個視頻，其中我談到了聽作為起點的重要性，因為它會引發你對主題的興趣，給你的閱讀帶來一些動力。

And so I would definitely recommend, as I said earlier here as well, focusing on listening, get used to the sounds and then gradually do more and more reading again, Mandarin for me was starting from scratch.

是以，我肯定會建議大家，就像我之前說的那樣，集中精力聽，習慣聲音，然後再逐漸增加閱讀量，國語對我來說是從零開始的。

Arabic, obviously Persian, Korean, Greek, few cognates, different writing system.

阿拉伯語、明顯的波斯語、韓語、希臘語，同源語很少，書寫系統不同。

But languages like Spanish to Portuguese, where at first actually I thought I would have an easier time understanding it.

但像西班牙語和葡萄牙語這樣的語言，一開始我以為會更容易理解。

The words are ninety five percent the same, ninety percent the same, couldn't understand it.

文字百分之九十五相同，百分之九十相同，無法理解。

So you have to get used to the new language.

是以，你必須適應新的語言。

You can't assume you can ace it.

你不能假定自己能成為王牌。

The same is true with, say, Ukrainian, where I thought I should be able to understand it, in fact, it's only 60 percent the same as Russian.

烏克蘭語也是如此，我以為我應該能聽懂它，但事實上，它與俄語只有 60% 的相同之處。

But because it's 60 percent the same, there are those cognates, just like Romanian has 70 percent words that are similar to Italian.

但因為有 60% 的詞彙相同，所以也有同義詞，就像羅馬尼亞語有 70% 的詞彙與意大利語相似一樣。

It gives you a big head start.

這讓你有了一個良好的開端。

So therefore, as you develop your strategy for this language where maybe it's the same alphabet or lots of cognates, then you may be, and depending on what your preferences are, you may do more reading, you may do more listening.

是以，當你為這門語言制定策略時，也許是相同的字母表或大量的同義詞，那麼你可能會根據自己的偏好，多做閱讀，多做聽力。

In any case, you have to pursue that, the input.

無論如何，你都必須追求投入。

If you are not a French speaker but you have Spanish, then I think a major emphasis on listening is important because French has so much liaison from between the words, it sort of one word slides into the next.

如果您不懂法語，但會西班牙語，那麼我認為重點放在聽力上是很重要的，因為法語的詞與詞之間有很多聯繫，就像一個詞滑入下一個詞一樣。

And I would focus in very much with French on trying to get a better sense of where, you know, one word ends and the next word begins.

我會把法語學習的重點放在如何更好地理解一個單詞的結束和下一個單詞的開始。

And also for all of these languages to get a sense of the cadence where there's a pause, the rhythm, the intonation.

此外，對所有這些語言來說，還能感受到停頓、節奏和語調。

Focus in on all of these things related to sound.

關注所有這些與聲音有關的東西。

But again, passively, because my belief is if you can get a really good base in the language in the first three months in terms of comprehension, then when you go to speak, you will have a lot of words and phrases and sounds and phonemic awareness to draw on.

但同樣是被動的，因為我相信，如果你能在前三個月打下非常好的語言理解基礎，那麼當你開口說話時，你就會有很多單詞、短語、聲音和音位意識可以利用。

And at some point in my own experience, when I have three to five thousand words, known words that link, that's when I start talking to people and not before.

根據我自己的經驗，當我有三到五千字，已知的詞語能夠聯繫起來時，我就會開始與人交談，而不是在此之前。

So my strategy with a new language is very much to not put myself in a situation where I have to speak, I have to perform.

是以，我學習一門新語言的策略是，不要讓自己處於非說不可、非表演不可的境地。

I don't want to talk to a tutor.

我不想和家教談話。

I don't want to expose myself to that.

我不想把自己暴露在這種情況下。

I want to create that familiarity, that ability to infer a database of experience with the language, and then when I have a certain level where I think I can start to defend myself in the language, then I start speaking with difficulty at first, but eventually more and more.

我想創造一種熟悉感，一種推斷語言經驗數據庫的能力，然後當我達到一定程度，我認為我可以開始用這門語言為自己辯護時，我就開始說這門語言，起初有困難，但最終會越來越多。

So the thought I would leave you with is try to think of starting a new language in terms of not that you're going to deliberately learn a list of most frequent words or you're going to deliberately read this explanation using the International Phonetic Alphabet, which I never use, you're just going to listen and get used to it.

是以，我想留給你們的想法是，在開始學習一門新語言時，不要刻意去學習一串最常見的單詞，也不要刻意用國際音標去讀這篇解釋，我從來不用國際音標，你只需要聽，然後習慣它。

And that's all you need to do.

這就是你需要做的。

You don't have to deliberately remember anything.

你不必刻意記住什麼。

You just have to expose yourself to the language and remain motivated.

你只需要多接觸這種語言，並保持積極性。

So to remain motivated, of course, you have to do things you like to do.

是以，要保持動力，當然要做自己喜歡做的事情。

So if you like the International Phonetic Alphabet, by all means, if you prefer reading, by all means, if you prefer reading grammar rules, by all means, do all those things that are going to keep you motivated, make sure you know why you're learning the language, make sure you know the kinds of activities that will keep you motivated, and as long as you remain active in the language, you are going to accumulate this sort of database of reference so that you can start inferring with more and more accuracy when you hear the language and when you go to use the language.

是以，如果你喜歡國際音標，那就盡一切可能，如果你喜歡閱讀，那就盡一切可能，如果你喜歡閱讀文法規則，那就盡一切可能，做所有那些能讓你保持動力的事情，確保你知道為什麼要學習這門語言，確保你知道哪些活動能讓你保持動力，只要你保持對這門語言的興趣，你就會積累這種參考數據庫，這樣當你聽到這門語言和使用這門語言時，你就能開始越來越準確地推斷。

And that period of the sort of getting started in a language can be anywhere from three to six or seven months, depending on how difficult the language is, how different the writing system is, what languages you already know, how much time you put in, all these other things, but recognize that it's not a deliberate action, it's a bit like the bird with the feathers, it almost happens incidentally, if you put the time into those kinds of learning activities.

開始學習一門語言的時間可能是三到六七個月，這取決於語言的難度、書寫系統的不同、你已經掌握了哪些語言、你投入了多少時間等等，但要認識到，這並不是一個刻意的行為，它有點像鳥兒身上的羽毛，如果你把時間投入到這些學習活動中，它幾乎是偶然發生的。

At least that's been my experience.

至少這是我的經驗。

Thanks for listening.

感謝您的收聽。

Bye for now.

再見。