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What's going on, guys? Thought I'd do
a video today and talk a little bit
about this book that I've started
reading, 'Working With Advanced
Foreign Language Students', by Boris,
and I am horrible at pronouncing
Russians names, but I think it is
Shekhtman, ok? Shekhtman, so he was a
teacher Russian at the Foreign
Service Institute, you guys might
know of the FSI Language Institute in
the US.

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They are renowned for getting
diplomats and people who work in the
Army and have to have to reach an
incredibly high level in a foreign
language, they are renowned for
getting those people to a very very
high level and, so I was really
interested in reading this book to
find out what it was that he did with
his students to really propel them to
really really high levels. So, there
are a lot of things that I'm already
wanting to talk about from this book.
I really recommend that you get it if
you're an advanced student and if
you're interested in teaching
languages as well as how advanced
students learn, ok?

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So, it's a really, really good book.
It's had me think about quite a few
different things, because I think
that people who learn English are a
different breed. They're different
kind of person from those who are
English speakers already learning a
foreign language for say pleasure,
right? You are not the same. You're
not the same as me, I'm not the same
as you and, to be honest, I consider
you guys, especially you guys who
moved to Australia, who learn
English, who get a job here, who set
up a life here, you guys grew up
here, right?

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I'm learning Portuguese and I was
learning French for a long time and a
few other languages. I'm down here,
because for me learning languages is
more of a luxury. It's not something
that my life depends on, but for you
guys it is something that your life
depends on, in terms of at least
success in this foreign country. So,
that's why I think that you guys are
an inspiration, you're really
impressive especially those of you
who work your ass off year after year
even after getting here, like a lot
of my students, especially some of
the ones that I get private lessons
to, they've been learning English for
15 years and they're still pushing
hard to improve their accent, their
pronunciation, their use of the
language, their mastery of the
language, even if they already at a
really, really high level.

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And, so this is where I kind of have
a little axe to grind with a lot of
polyglot online and why I try to not
have them on a pedestal, right? I try
to take them off the pedestal because
a lot of people see them and think
'wow! This guy speaks 20 languages'
and they think that's really
impressive, you know, 'wow! He speaks
20 languages', but they forget that
it's a mile wide and metre deep,
right?

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So, these guys, especially English
natives, who end up learning foreign
languages when it is almost certainly
the case that it's just enjoyment,
it's because they're interested in
learning, which you know respect,
that's totally fine, that's in fact
why I'm learning foreign languages,
but it's different because they're
not trying to, often, at least, in
the case of most say Western
polyglot, they're not trying to start
a life in that country. They're not
immigrating to that foreign country
that language they're learning,
they're not trying to reach a native
like level or even a very proficient
like level in those languages.

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Most often, I think, a lot of
polyglots kind of want the wow
factor. They are inherently
interested in languages and in
learning languages, in foreign
cultures, for sure. You know, I'm the
same, but I think a lot of these
people are much more interested in
kind of like collecting languages and
being able to have very rudimentary,
basic conversations, but with a lot
of people in a lot of different
languages, they would prefer that
kind of aspect, over the aspect that
I think a lot of you guys are going
for, at least with English, when it
comes to your a metre wide and a mile
deep or a kilometre deep, if we're
using the metric system in Australia,
they're a kilometre wide and a meter
deep, ok?

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So, you guys are two different
species. That was one thing that I
kind of came to the realization of
and had to sort of decide when I was
thinking, you know, wouldn't it be
great if I could learn Spanish and
Italian and German and a whole bunch
of these languages, but I realized
pretty quickly the more that I pile
on and then I tried to do the
shallower I'll get in any of those
languages, right? Because we all have
only 24 hours in a day. We can't use
all of those 24 hours, we only have a
single life and, so if I want to get
proficient in many languages, I'm not
going to get as proficient as if I
focus on fewer languages, ok? So,
that was the kind of eureka moment,
let's say, that I came to a year or
so ago and that's why, I guess, I've
knuckled down and really started
trying to focus on just Portuguese
for now to really get to a high level
in Portuguese.

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So, I guess the first point was there
to knock polyglot off the pedestal,
right? These guys aren't magicians,
they're not language phenoms,
usually. Obviously, there are some
people who are exceptions and they're
just freaks or they've been raised as
native speakers of very many
languages and they have the capacity
to use them. Man, I envy all of you
guys over in Europe, you know,
learning foreign languages, because
quite often you can just talk to so
many different people of different
languages all over the place all the
time, but most of the time, I think
you would be surprised if you
actually found out their actual level
in those foreign languages.

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So, anyway, back to this book. You
know, I've ever had my little axe
thrown on polyglots and why you
shouldn't glorify them, you should be
sort of, you know, thinking more
about... I think you shouldn't be
looking to polyglot as role models
for you in terms of learning English,
unless you are just learning English
for fun and it's not a serious thing
and you're not trying to get to a
very deep level in English or, at
least, not in a very quick amount of
time, a short amount of time. Don't
look to polyglots as models, ok?

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I think the people that you want to
look to quite often are the ones you
never get to meet, because they're
already successful in that country,
right? They're the people who
immigrate to Australia at the age of
18, have no language skills, spend
five years, 10 years trying to
improve their language, they get a
full-time job and they pay their way
in that country. They have a job, a
career, they work hard, they work
tirelessly every single day to
improve their, I guess, absorption
into the culture, right? Their
integration into Australian culture
and their use of the language.

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These are the real heroes when it
comes to learning English in my
opinion. They're the ones who you
should be modelling yourselves off if
your ultimate goal is to come to
Australia, to learn English, to
integrate into our society, to live
here permanently, to get a job here,
to get a career here, because they
are successful, they are the ones
who've done it, right? Whereas
polyglots are rarely ever going to
have worked in the languages that
they're actually using, you know,
there are definitely some who do, but
I would say the vast amount don't
ever get to a capacity in those
languages where they are actually
functioning in that society, using
that language, with a career using
that language, you know, and trying
to integrate into that society.

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So, if that's your goal in Australia,
I think definitely reassess who you
look up to in terms of learning
English and the work ethic you have.
I think the problem too is if you
model yourself off people like
polyglots, you're going to treat
learning English differently than if
you model yourself of people who are
actually here for good. It's kind of
like they've landed in Australia and
they've cut off any exit, right? It's
kind of like all or nothing. So, the
guys that you meet in Australia who
are 100 percent serious about
English, pretty much they don't move
in with other people who speak their
native language when they get here,
they don't surround themselves with
other native speakers of their
foreign languages, you know, they try
and really dive in to Australian
culture, they start reading
Australian books, they start watching
Australian news, they start going to
Australian movies, being involved in
Australian events and clubs and
organizations.

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They get a job here where they're
away from native speakers of their
own language. You know, I remember
when I was working in a Spanish
restaurant it was it was funny
because there are a lot of students
there who were Spanish speakers,
obviously, and they thought, you
know, I'll get a job in a Spanish
restaurant because I'll be able to
use Spanish and obviously the Spanish
restaurant wants Spanish speakers
there because it makes it look more
Spanish.

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But they ended up speaking Spanish
most of the time. Any interactions
that they would have with other
people in the restaurant who were
also Spanish were always in Spanish,
they would talk to the customers, but
it would tend to be the same small,
easy conversations all the time. So,
again, get a job away from those
people, and I think too, just hold
yourself to a higher standard. How
deep do you want to go? A lot of
people sell themselves short. They
think 'I'll never get there. I'll
never get to a really high level',
whereas I think... I had a story,
when I used to do Jiu Jitsu, it's
been a few years now, but I remember
someone telling me this saying, I
can't remember if it was from someone
else or if it was their saying, but
they told me effectively whether you
think you can or you can't you're
right, right?

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So, if you think you can do it, you
can do it. If you don't think you can
do it, you can't do it, right? So,
it's the attitude that you have. I
think it was related to MMA Fighting,
right? The successful fighters go
into a fight knowing they can do it.
The unsuccessful ones go in there
doubting themselves and thinking 'Oh
I can't do this, this guy's too
good', because they've already
decided that, you know, they're going
to lose, right? So, you have to
change this kind of mentality when it
comes to English learning, I think,
you need to go in thinking 'I'm going
to go all out, I'm going to, you
know, like I'm just going to dive in,
I'm going to listen to podcasts,
watch TV, meet people, have
conversations, not be afraid to speak
with people, build my confidence, go
out'.

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Like, you almost have to force
yourself to become a bit of an
extrovert, right? Again, these are
all my opinions guys. There's no
science behind this, just sort of my
view, but I think they're the people
who ultimately end up the most
successful and who reach the highest
level in English that they can
possibly achieve. They just keep
going, they keep doing it they work,
work, work, work, work.

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So, other things to mention about
this book so far would be that the
chapter that I was just reading was
talking about the importance of
finding your errors, right? Finding
your weaknesses and focussing on
them. I think he was stating that the
better people get, the easier they
find it to avoid interrogating their
weaknesses, and as a result improving
them, right? So, you're going to see
your English kind of like Swiss
cheese, where there are lots of holes
in the cheese, right? The holes in
the cheese are the holes in your
English, whether it's grammar, vocab,
pronunciation.

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Those holes get smaller the more
proficient you get in the language,
but quite often they're still there,
at least, you know until you're
effectively native level. However,
people get better at going around
these holes. They don't know a word
for this, they know another way of
explaining it. They can't pronounce
the TH in English, people understand
them, so it's not the end of the
world. So, he was saying that really,
really advanced learners, especially
those trying to get to a very
advanced level, are constantly doing
the opposite of what some people do
where they try to avoid their
mistakes once they get to a
proficient level, after they get
past, you know, intermediate to
advanced in that language.

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They do the opposite and they try and
find those areas that they suck at or
that they get wrong or that they're
bad at. So, something that I guess
you guys should take away from this
video, that will really help you
improve your English, will be don't
turn your eye away from where your
mistakes are, where your flaws are,
where you need to improve, because
these are the parts that if you
probably give just a little bit of
attention to your language levels are
going to really skyrocket.

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So, I would reassess your grammar,
reassess your pronunciation, reassess
your vocabulary, think about your
weaknesses and then actively try and
work on them. If you need a teacher,
find a teacher on iTalki, there's
plenty of tutors out there for
English, but go out of your way to
try and find the areas that you are
weak in English and work on them, so
they're no longer a weakness, right?

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Make those holes smaller and smaller
and smaller until they're gone, ok?
So, that would be my biggest message.
I hope this video is helpful, I kind
of ranted for a bit. It was kind of
impromptu, I just sort of felt
spontaneously interested in doing
this. Let me know what you think in a
comment below. I always love to hear
your thoughts, I'm not perfect, these
are just my opinions, but yeah I'd
love to chat with you in the comments
below. Anyway, thanks for listening.
Thanks for watching. See you soon!