I want to start telling the story of how it all began.
I had basically just to graduate and moved to Spain
And I went to this dinner for a group of international exchange students from all over the world
And suddenly I saw this Brazilian guy, a very interesting figure
And he gave me an impressive show of multilingual I had never seen in my life
Basically, another Brazilian approached
And he said something like "Hey, brother, what happened yesterday? You disappeared! Nobody deserves."
Then he turned, then immediately to a Frenchman who was singing because he was a beautiful boy
And thus spoke (in French ...)
Then he turned to the event organizer, a Spaniard, and spoke (in Spanish ....)
Then he turned to me and said, with a very heavy American accent
In fact, I can not imitate the American accent ... I'm sorry (laughs)
Anyway, I asked him "How do you do this?"
How's talking all this language !?
Because I, to be honest, could only speak English
Well, that 8 years ago.
I grew up thinking, I do not ... ham ... I just can not do it
You can not, because I had German and Irish-Gaelic school
but I was very wrong in these matters, so I thought I had no talent for languages
Gene, you know
Oh I know all about genetics, even though I have not studied. But I was right, I did not have the talent gene for languages (ironic tone)
I had various excuses and reasons that many people can relate
Like, I did not have time or resources ... I was too old
Though I have only 21, I thought "this is it, I'm too old and passed the age"
I had heard someone say that after 13 years you can not learn a new language
So I was sure of it. You have to learn as a child and go!
And of all the reasons people have, I had an extra reason
I had an illness as a child and had to do speech therapy because of the difficulty in learning English
I still have difficulties in pronunciation from time to time, but most of the things that I pronounce incorrectly today is because of my Irish accent (laughs)
So do not worry about it
Well, I was 100% sure that it was not possible and asked that guy (the Brazilian linguist)
How do you do to speak all these languages !?
And he said "Oh you know, I'm just trying to speak the language"
Driving me to the person using the language
So I said "oh no ... it can not be that simple"
So I challenged myself and decided I wanted to learn Spanish
I had just moved to Spain and decided that instead of just making a quick stage
that I only use my native language, English, because I had my degree in Electronic Engineering, you know, only he used the left side of the brain
It was good at math, not language
But I decided "not I can find a way"
I will find a way to learn the language.
So I dove in all methods you can imagine
I took a course and expensive that only had 3 or 4 people in the classroom
I attended by several weeks. Did not work.
I started studying several books. Did not work.
I took a course in the city, I used software. Did not work.
I tried to read a book! My first choice, not very wise I think it was the Lord of the Rings
I thought "I'll read this book in Spanish" I have a dictionary that I would consult every two words basically
Li to the second page and realized it would not account
So after 6 months living in Spain I could not even speak Spanish ...
It only convinced me even more that I had no talent, cream genius who speaks several languages
But then I had an idea and that's what I want to share with people
What I have tried to show to the world is that it is not talent
I really feel that talent is actually irrelevant
Some people may even come out better, but it does not matter to you.
So what I did was to start speaking Spanish
I do not know if that makes sense now, but it will certainly make
The problem was that during the six months I was studying Spanish
I studied so much that it turned out to be something very difficult for me
All those subjunctive, definite articles, things were just confusing me.
And after much study I had not yet evolved. I did not know many words.
After six months I was still in only level could speak "hola" "gracias" "please" and "adios" knows !?
Fleeing this way
But then I decided "I will begin to speak the language"
I will ignore all those excuses like, "I'm not ready" "need to study more"
"I'm not smart enough to learn a new language"
I'll get to speak the language.
And then everything changed.
Shortly after I was already progressing.
A few weeks later I realized I was doing everything in Spanish, living the life practicing the language
And eventually I reached the point where my level was already very good.
Now the problem is that whenever we will find that person who will say that it is impossible for them
They always have many reasons to justify why they can not just start talking ...
Luckily, I had the opportunity to hear the most famous reasons to see if I can convince you that
I truly believe that anyone can learn a new language
One thing people will say is that they do not have the words
When you start to learn a language you do not have words
How can I talk to someone?
But if you are learning a Latin language like Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese
What people do not realize is that they already have perhaps thousands of words before you even start
Because, I think in 1066 when the French Normandy arrived in England
and they stood for centuries, they had two social classes
or the poor peasants who spoke a Germanic language
and the rich or noble speaking something close French
and eventually these two languages merged
then in English we have a vast French vocabulary that ends up being similar or identical in Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese and so on
so if you learn some of these words have you out in front
and you can find out without having to learn the language, how to pronounce the words
so if you remember the different levels of formality
Say I want to say the word "country" in Spanish, but I forgot how
or I do not know what the word is because I never had contact with her
How about rephrase the word in their own language thinking of another way to say the word "country"
I could say "nation". Maybe not exactly mean the same thing, but it's close enough
And the nation is just nación (in Spanish) or nation (in French) or whatever the corresponding language
Or you might think, if someone knocks on the door you can say "come in" (in English) and fine
or you can also say "enter" and "enter" comes from the French origin and there you have "come" (Portuguese), "entrer" (French) and so on
So until then you already have a few words, but say you're going away
For example, an Asian language or the Middle East
is still not possible, today, start learning a language from scratch, from nothing
It's not possible! Because you always have something!
Human beings are interacting all the time
Do you have any brand names or technologies that use the same word
So you can imagine how it would be difficult to find a language that at least one or all
such as Coca-Cola, International, Obama would not have the same meaning anywhere in the world, you know !?
That's universal. If you think about it. I myself have used brand name to me initially get along with people
And then when you get a vocabulary that can take you to learn words you had not had contact before
You can try some memory tricks.
I have a bad memory!
It looks like I have a device that activates censorship when the person speaks her name
It's kind of like "nice to meet you" I am "pii"
I forget the name immediately!
But despite this, I learn words quickly because I try to make it fun
I think to myself, like when I was learning Spanish
I caught the word "beach" (beach in English) and saw "playa" (beach in Spanish)
Then I thought, okay, "playa" even looks a bit like an English word "player"
So I thought, well imagine that, when I think of "player" comes to mind an artist and tacky grip
Imagine this super confident guy walking the Spanish beaches trying to pick up girls and carrying a slap in the face
It's a very visual image.
From there I remembered, well, if I saw the word "playa" which was similar to the word "player" I remembered the guy on the beach!
And conversely it worked well.
If you think of "playa" and associated with "player" and makes the opposite way, you can quickly learn the words by association
No matter how bad his memory.
And you can learn phrases.
I like to introduce some music because it is a good place to start with your tongue when you want to learn the basics
Type "where is the bathroom" and things like that
So what I would do if I was learning, like, Italian
I'd get "where is the bathroom"
Dove si trova yl gabinetto
And I thought, um, I do not know ... I'll get The Big Ben Time
And I sang to myself sometimes "Dove si trova il gabinettooo" (singing)
And I kept singing and singing ...
and ready, I had memorized!
And that's despite the bad memory I have.
So, words are not the problem.
You can learn a language if you do not know a word
In fact, you have to accept that you know many words
Thousands if not tens of thousands
The other problem that people talk about is the grammar
When you learn a language at school, as many of us do
Most of it is in grammar school
I learned German in school. And, for me, German was just "dehr, dis, the, tables" of complicated structures
who intimidated me fully
And this is not a language!
This is a list of rules that is as good as mathematics or something
And it does not work. The language means communication.
When you try to put it in a box full of grammatical rules
you are not allowing you to use the language to communicate freely
I honestly like grammar
I am not against grammar and I am not saying to burn the grammar books
But what I consider much more effective
is that if you are committed to talk
The talk wrong
And I encourage people to talk to as many possible errors
I purpose to commit as many errors when I am learning a language
Because then I know I'm going somewhere
because I'm talking to people!
I know my grammar is bad at first
but something interesting happened because I hated grammar in school
I had grammar in English class, Irish-Gaelic and German grammar
I hated! It was so boring ... but now I love grammar!
Because what happens is that I put it aside
I do not leave forever. I leave aside
I engajo me on the tongue, start to learn some phrases, some people find
I start using the language. And after a few months
When I feel that language is part of me
I can communicate and use it as a human being
Then I come back to grammar
And it's very interesting because it's like the historical account of the language
Ah that's why they talk like that!
It is very cool!
So grammar can be pretty cool if you deal with it that way
Another reason is money.
People say "I have no money"
I have to buy this expensive program
I have to do this course I heard
I think all these things have in common is the placebo effect
Like, have you invested so much money you may end up struggling more because of it
And I think the components of the course, unless it is an immersion course
They end up leaving aside what really matters
But anyway, people get what they want
Some people have success doing these courses because they invest so much money
that means they who bear it
One thing I think is much more efficient when you make the public issue
I think the reason I learned Spanish that first time
It was because I told everybody!
I not only promised myself and then did what my New Year's resolution
"Learn Spanish someday"
Has seven days a week and "someday" is not one of them
You need to start now!
I started and I told everybody. All my friends
my family, all the world, because it was responsible
I felt responsible. I had to deliver.
Otherwise, I feel embarrassed.
This was much more powerful than spend money and feel that I had to use it.
Money is not the problem, you can do all this for free.
You can meet people for free without having to travel abroad
There are so many good connection forms today. Several networking sites where you search by language
or if you have no one in your city you can talk to someone on skype
So you can learn any language that way
Another thing I think is one of the great things for people is that they think will frustrate
the person with whom they are talking
I think that is the biggest problem that I heard
You will talk to the person and she will be mad
Like, "You're ruining my tongue, how dare you!"
It is not how it happens.
I think even ironic when people tell me that
That, you know, they will bother the person with whom they are talking
Well, actually, most people I talk to and who are willing to learn a language
I see a lot of frustration in their eyes just because they can not speak yet
Right here, I met people like that, who is in San Antonio, surrounded by people who speak Spanish, but still can not communicate with them
And they feel so frustrated by that!
And that's a frustration about the size of a lifetime
I feel that this is much bigger than, like, talk to someone who can roll your eyes, or whatever
But it does not happen!
In fact, among the natives of other languages than English
I see it in the whole world if you try to speak the language with them
They are filled with joy!
They think, wow, he's trying to speak my language!
He does not expect that everyone has to speak English!
So you, in fact, be encouraged!
People will be telling you "you're doing great"
Even if you have science that your grammar is bad
You keep using the same 10 words the whole time
In the first days
But it's alright! Because you are beginning to communicate with people
I think that's what's missing
This idea of communication
Language is not the kind of thing you have to test
You may be right or wrong
Not the kind of thing that is white or black
It's like humans speak to each other
And there's no wrong way to do this
If your words are a bit strange
You forget to conjugate the verb, or whatever
People will always understand you
I'm sure you've heard someone speaking English (or your language)
imperfectly. You will always understand.
So, I think the problem people have with frustration
is that they think that the world will end if they
try to speak the language
The whole world will end
I honestly think the opposite
I think a new world will begin
If you try to speak a new language with people
So I really hope you try.
Thank you so much!
For more infomation >> Arrestan al sospechoso de violar a dos menores y asesinar a una en Ciudad Juárez, México - Duration: 2:01. 
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