Name: 5件事！我開始學語言時，如果知道就好了！ (5 things I wish I knew when I started learning languages)
Uploaded: 2026-03-08T01:47:02.000Z
Duration: 9 min 12 s

基礎數量詞

You know, I was thinking the other day, you know, are there things that I have learned now after so many years, I don't know, 60, 70 years of learning languages?

其實我前幾天在想，學了這麼多年，大概六七十年吧，我學語言有沒有學到什麼東西？

過去簡單式

Are there things that I wish I knew then when I was getting started learning languages?

在我剛開始學習語言的時候，有沒有什麼是我希望當時就知道的？

And I can think of five things that I wish I knew then.

我可以想到五件事，是我希望當時就知道的。

The first thing is, it needn't be that difficult.

第一件事是，其實不用那麼難。

Traditional language teaching puts a lot of obstacles in front of us that destroy our confidence.

傳統的語言教學，會在我們面前設很多障礙，摧毀我們的信心。

We don't want to get things wrong on the test.

As a school kid, you know, from grade two on, we had French.

像我們小時候，大概從二年級開始，我們就有法文課。

Maybe it was from grade one on in Montreal.

And at the end of it all, I couldn't really speak French.

到最後，我還是不太會說法文。

But it wasn't me taking the initiative and learning a language.

但那不是我主動性地學習語言。

So the first time that I can remember where I deliberately said, I want to learn a language was when I was in France, because I eventually did get interested in French and went to France and studied at a university.

所以我第一次記得我刻意說「我想學習一種語言」的時候，是在法國，因為我最終對法文產生興趣，去了法國，在大學唸書。

And a friend of mine said, you know, you should.

我有個朋友說，你知道嗎，你應該。

So I thought, yeah, that sounds kind of neat.

所以我就想，嗯，聽起來好像蠻不錯的。

So I got the textbook was by a Nina Patapova.

所以我拿到了課本，作者是 Nina Patapova。

我還記得她的名字，還有那本書。

And I started, you know, flipping through the pages, and it just struck me as so difficult.

然後我開始，你知道，翻翻書頁，就覺得它好難。

The writing system, you know, the backward R, which is ya, for example, which isn't a backward R, but

那個書寫系統，你知道，那個倒 R，也就是 ya，舉例來說，它其實不是倒 R，但

And just so difficult, you know, case endings and so many different things.

還有各種不同的東西，像是格位結尾，真的太難了。

I'm taking all these courses in French, which is difficult enough.

我上的這些課都是法文授課，光是這樣就夠難了。

I'm going to take English as my foreign language.

We have this feeling that we can never learn this language.

我們會有種感覺，覺得我們永遠學不會這種語言。

And so what I wish I knew then was, it doesn't matter.

所以，我那時候希望我知道的是，其實沒關係。

The strange letters, the, you know, K sendings.

那些奇怪的字母，還有，你知道的，K的發音。

All of these things in time will become easier as you continue to expose yourself to the language.

所有這些東西，隨著你持續接觸這門語言，都會慢慢變容易。

So I wish I knew then, first of all, that take it easy because it's so important to be confident that you can learn.

所以，我那時候希望我知道的是，首先，放輕鬆，因為建立自信心，相信自己學得會，這真的非常重要。

And traditional language learning makes us think that it's a very difficult task.

而且傳統的語言學習方式，會讓我們覺得這是一件很難的事。

And I think a majority of people who study languages and who very often give up on those languages actually don't have the confidence that they can learn.

我想，大多數學習語言卻又常常放棄的人，其實都是因為沒有自信心，覺得自己學得會。

Now, the second thing that I wish I knew then is you actually have to have a lot of repetition.

再來，我那時候希望知道的第二件事是，你其實需要大量的重複練習。

So the average language book takes you from lesson one.

所以，一般的語言書會帶你從第一課開始。

Very often you're, you know, at the airport, and then you are going through customs, and

常常你會遇到，你知道的，在機場，然後你要過海關，還有

then you're at the doctor's office and so different scenarios.

在醫生那裡，各種不同的情境。

And in fact, that's not very good because you're dealing with different vocabulary in each of these episodes or scenarios, and

事實上，這樣效果不是很好，因為你在這些情境或單元裡，會接觸到不同的單字，而且

you don't spend enough time with the content in each of those episodes.

你在每個單元裡，沒有花足夠的時間去熟悉內容。

You actually have to have a lot of repetition at the early stages, 20, 30 times, listening to the same story, not necessarily all at once, but, you know, if you do lesson one and you listen to it and read it three, four, five times, then listen, then do the next one and the next one, you then have to go back to the first one again.

所以，在初期你其實需要大量的重複，二十次、三十次，聽同一個故事，不一定是一口氣聽完，但你知道的，如果你上完第一課，聽了、唸了三、四、五次，然後再聽，接著上下一課，你之後還要再回到第一課。

That it's this constant cycle of repeating audio and text and always combining the two.

那就是不斷重複聽音檔和看文字，並且總是結合這兩者。

You're not sort of going through something in the hope that you're going to learn it.

你不是那種抱持著希望會學會的心態在學習。

It's more a matter of exposing yourself repetitively to material that will eventually cause some form of, you know, connection between your neurons to take place.

比較像是讓自己重複地接觸教材，最終會在你的神經元之間產生某種連結。

So this idea of the importance of repetition of audio and text is something that I was not aware of originally.

所以，這個聽音檔和文字重複的重要性，是我一開始不知道的。

I thought I was sort of trying to learn these things as I was coming across them.

我當時以為我是在學習過程中，遇到什麼就學什麼。

Whereas, in fact, that's not the process.

但事實上，那不是學習的過程。

The process is one of constantly exposing yourself to a limited amount of content in order that some of these things start to take hold in your brain.

學習的過程是讓你不斷地接觸有限的內容，這樣這些東西才能開始在大腦裡紮根。

So that was the second thing, the importance of repetition at the early stages of language learning.

所以這是第二點，語言學習初期重複的重要性。

The next thing that I wish I knew then was that languages is not about trying to understand or theorize about the grammatical structure.

再來，我希望當時就知道的下一件事是，學習語言不是試圖去理解或理論化文法結構。

It's more a matter of putting yourself in a position where you can start going out to explore and to find content of interest.

更多的是讓你處在一個可以開始出去探索、尋找感興趣內容的位置。

So I realized this when I was in Hong Kong learning Mandarin.

所以我在香港學習中文的時候，就意識到了這一點。

I would go to the bookstores, look for books that had lessons on history, on other subjects, literature with glossaries behind each lesson.

我會去書店找那些有歷史、其他科目課程的書，還有每課後面都有詞彙表的文學作品。

So I eventually did know that, but I didn't know it when I started in at first, and

所以我最終確實知道了，但剛開始的時候我並不知道，

that the responsibility was going to be with me to go out and find things.

而且責任會在我身上，需要我自己出去找東西。

My initial exposure to Mandarin was more sitting in the classroom and going through these expansion drills where you're kind of forced to, you know, respond and add a word, and

我一開始接觸中文，比較多是在教室裡，做那些擴充練習，你會有點被迫去回應、加一個單字，

so that there is a lot of repetition there.

I didn't realize Then that in order to really progress in the language, I would have to go out and explore.

我當時沒有意識到，為了真正進步，我必須自己出去探索。

And of course, exploring, finding content, which is a big part of language learning, is now easier than ever because of the availability of YouTube and podcasts and things of that nature.

而且當然，探索、尋找內容，這在學習語言中佔了很大一部分，現在因為有 YouTube 和 podcast 等內容的出現，比以往任何時候都更容易。

But I didn't understand initially that the journey was going to be one of lots of repetition at the beginning and then more and more, you know, exploring the language later on, and

但我一開始沒想到，這趟旅程一開始會有很多重複，然後慢慢地，你會開始探索語言，

certainly not one of trying to nail down the grammar.

I wish I knew then that as I was going through German declension tables or, you know, French or Spanish conjugation tables, it doesn't matter.

我希望我當時就知道，當我在學德文的變化表，或是法文、西班牙文的變化表時，其實都一樣。

You don't have to remember those things if you review them, which I do from time to time.

如果你有複習，這些東西不用全部記住，我就是會不時複習一下。

It's just exposing yourself again to elements of the language.

就是再次讓自己接觸語言的元素。

You can be exposed to them in context, which is better.

你可以在情境中接觸，這樣更好。

But you can also every so often expose yourself to those elements in a concentrated format like a conjugation table.

不過你也可以偶爾用集中的方式接觸這些元素，像是動詞變化表。

But in either case, the objective of doing that is for more exposure.

但無論如何，這樣做的目標都是為了更多的接觸。

For a long time I thought that in reviewing these, it was the case with Russian, with Jack, and

很久以前我認為在複習這些的時候，就像學俄文、學 Jack 的時候一樣，

of course I could never remember the endings, I couldn't use them properly.

當然我總是記不住字尾，也用不好。

And so I felt, geez, I better go and study those tables again and again and again.

所以我就覺得，天啊，我最好再去一次又一次又一次地研究那些表格。

And in fact, now I understand that all the details of the language, they will eventually come to you, you needn't deliberately try to remember them.

事實上，現在我明白了，語言的所有細節，最終都會來到你身邊，你不需要刻意去記住它們。

Again, I'm talking from the perspective of an independent language learning.

再次強調，我講的是獨立學習語言的觀點。

If I'm a full time learner of a language and one of my activities can be to review details of the language, the tones in Chinese or the tables in Romance language.

如果我是一個全職的語言學習者，而我的活動之一是複習語言的細節，像是中文的聲調或羅曼語族的表格。

And if I understood then that, don't sweat it, these things will eventually get better if you give yourself enough exposure to the language.

如果我那時候就懂，別擔心，只要給你足夠的語言接觸，這些東西最終都會變好。

I would not have put so much pressure on myself to learn those things.

我就不會給自己那麼大的壓力去學那些東西了。

And finally, I think in, certainly in French, maybe in Chinese, I was keen to try.

最後，我認為，在說法文的時候，或許說中文的時候，我都很想嘗試。

你知道，為什麼我不能說得更好？

You know, I want to have better pronunciation, I want to be more fluent, I want to speak more quickly and so forth.

你知道，我想要發音更好，我想要更流利，我想要說得更快等等。

Had I realized then that the input drives the ability to speak, that I needn't speak until I'm ready.

如果我那時候就意識到，輸入驅動了說話的能力，我不需要等到準備好了才說。

If I wait until I've heard enough of the language, I will probably pronounce.

如果我等到聽了夠多這種語言，我大概會發音。