शैडोइंग अभ्यास: Why I Quit Learning Languages - वीडियो के साथ अंग्रेजी बोलना सीखें

When I first started learning languages, I was obsessed.

It was like I finally found my purpose in life.

I studied all day, every day, starting first with French.

I would wake up and immediately listen to the language, then eat breakfast while looking at a French textbook, drive to work, French podcast,

lunch break, study French, go home, study French, then sit in calls on the internet until the early morning speaking French.

Things evolved and I added other languages, and then in 2020 when I was stuck at home, I walked, I kid you not,

at least 10 miles every single day while listening to podcasts and learning lingos for countless hours.

It became my entire identity, and because I loved it so much, I improved so fast.

When I wasn't learning languages, I was practicing them, and if I wasn't practicing them, I was talking about them.

I saw it as a game, a way to unlock communication DLC with new NPCs around the world.

As a formerly sheltered American, I started studying maps, and I finally learned where every country is and which languages they all speak.

Then I'd fall asleep fantasizing about which languages I'd ultimately learn and where I could go travel to use them.

And I spent a ton of time watching polyglot YouTube.

I was so motivated seeing people who were ahead of me speaking even more languages.

Of course, some were better than others, some just wanted me to buy their course, but I was especially a fan of Steve Kaufman,

whose lifelong dedication to languages inspired me like none other.

I genuinely wanted to become the greatest language learner of all time, and I would stop at nothing to achieve that.

So funny enough, I started filming myself in private, roleplaying as a polyglot YouTuber, flexing all my languages.

So one day, I stopped LARPing, and I made my own YouTube channel.

I had always dreamed of being a YouTuber, but now I finally had my niche, an obsession that I was truly passionate about.

I started sharing my unique perspective in the community.

I wanted to convey that language learning is the most fun

and rewarding hobby in the world that doesn't need to be overly academic, serious, or complicated.

I also wanted to show that people who lie and exaggerate their levels in languages are cringe, and that French is gay.

And people liked my videos.

I mean, a lot of people hated them, but the controversy kept them coming back for more.

So after consistently making videos for a while, I was blessed with an amazing community, more subscribers and views than a man could ever dream of having,

and a sense of purpose in life that I finally felt aligned with.

And then my idol, the guy I looked to for advice on my favorite hobby, the guy I wanted to be like,

Steve Kaufman, publicly complimented my language skills.

I've only heard you in Arabic, I've heard you in Russian, and you are very good.

All of that success felt amazing, and I'm truly grateful for everything.

But behind the scenes, there was a lot going on in my head.

You see, pretty early on in my YouTube career, a major shift occurred.

That passionate, unrivaled energy I had for language learning started to fade.

Because the countless hours I would spend studying languages

and trying to become the best polyglot ever were now being spent making videos about language learning.

So anytime I'd sit down to study, I'd feel like I'm procrastinating the more important thing, the YouTube channel.

It always felt like my time would be better spent researching, writing, editing, or brainstorming ideas.

So for the first time since I started, I wasn't improving my languages.

And pretty quickly, this shift started to hurt me.

I lost a big part of myself.

Arguably the best and most positive part of me.

The part of me who lived for the joy of learning languages.

And I'd constantly try to fix this and start studying again.

I used to be able to stick to and not cheat on a language for a very long time,

but now I'd get excited about a language for a month or two before slowly drifting away from it.

I kept desperately trying to recreate that obsession I once had, but it just always felt forced.

The version of me that used to spend every waking hour thinking about languages just seemingly wasn't there anymore.

And it became a negative feedback loop, where the worse I felt about it, the less I'd try, which would make me feel worse about it, and I'd just avoid things more.

But in parallel, my YouTube success led me to great places.

I've now been to all sorts of different countries for language exchange events, and I've met so many remarkable people who are genuinely impressive with all the languages they speak fluently.

I am blown away seeing other people's passion for this hobby, and it is unbelievably inspiring seeing what people are capable of.

But often in these circles and at these events, I've just felt like such an imposter.

Everyone around me has continued to improve in their languages, but I've just stagnated in private and it's frustrating.

It's frustrating because I know I'm capable of so much more

and I miss that feeling of progress and achievement that I used to have all the time.

I used to be able to talk about languages for countless hours without stopping, but now, if someone even mentioned them,

it would bring up deep feelings of shame and remind me of all the lost time.

So due to all that, I quit learning languages.

I seemingly didn't like them anymore, and there was too much self-imposed negativity for me to even consider trying again.

I'd pop on YouTube to make videos that I did genuinely enjoy,

but there was a huge disconnect between the guy making videos about language learning and the guy actually learning languages,

which just further amplified things and made me pretty depressed.

So I went and spent time with other hobbies, but under the surface, it was just escapism.

I never was able to find anything that scratched the same itch.

So why am I making this video and saying this all now?

Well, recently, something changed.

A little while ago, I finally had the clarity to see what went wrong.

I was looking at things backwards.

I was putting the cart before the horse.

I kept waiting for the passion to magically reappear before I started learning again, and that just wasn't working.

I just spent my days depressed about all the time I had seemingly lost.

So instead of waiting for the magical motivation fairy to come visit me, I just started.

I started studying again.

And I picked something I'd been procrastinating for years, improving my Spanish.

For so long, I felt that my Spanish was underdeveloped.

So I started showing up every single day and learning it again.

And most importantly, I did it without judging myself.

And I made it the priority ahead of making videos.

And then something unexpected happened.

All of the positive feelings around language learning slowly started to come back and I became excited again.

I began to reconnect with the past version of myself whose life was consumed by language learning and it feels so good.

I've started to daydream again about the future and all the adventures I could go on with my languages.

And as I'm writing this video, last night for the first time in a long time, I fell asleep thinking of the languages I could learn in the future.

I thought that I had to find passion to create action, but it was the other way around.

Taking action rekindled my passion.

So now I'm proud to tell you

that I've been sharing what I learn every single day for more than 120 days with my supporters on Patreon.

And now I feel reconnected to my dream of becoming the best language learner ever, and I'm gonna do it.

And as for YouTube, yeah, it's gotten in the way at times, but that's because my priorities were backwards.

I don't need to quit YouTube.

Perhaps this could be a new beginning of sorts for me.

But if I'm gonna share my passion for languages again, I need to be actively living it.

So from now on, I'll always prioritize my hobby and my mission, and then my videos will naturally follow from that.

And I'm very sorry, mother, but I think it's time we grow the beard back out.

That beard I had in 2022 was a symbol of my undying dedication towards polyglottism, and shaving it was the worst mistake of my life.

Half of my languages were stored in there.

And I think it's time I do what most YouTubers do when they get a bit more serious.

100

I'm gonna change my channel name from Language Simp to my actual legal birth name.

101

Language Simp.

102

I'd like to continue to inspire people to join me in this wonderful hobby, the greatest hobby that the universe has ever given us.

103

And as always...

104

...Vseem i di naaaaaaach!

📺 उसी चैनल से

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University StudentsWorking Adults+1

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University StudentsWorking Adults+1

✨ अनुशंसित वीडियो

273 वाक्य

शैडोइंग तकनीक क्या है?

शैडोइंग (Shadowing) एक विज्ञान-समर्थित भाषा सीखने की तकनीक है जो मूल रूप से पेशेवर दुभाषिया प्रशिक्षण के लिए विकसित की गई थी। विधि सरल लेकिन शक्तिशाली है: आप मूल अंग्रेज़ी ऑडियो सुनते हैं और तुरंत इसे ज़ोर से दोहराते हैं — जैसे वक्ता की छाया 1-2 सेकंड की देरी से। शोध से पता चलता है कि यह उच्चारण सटीकता, स्वर, लय, जुड़ी हुई ध्वनियाँ, सुनने की समझ और बोलने की प्रवाहशीलता में काफ़ी सुधार करता है।

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शैडोइंग अभ्यास: Why I Quit Learning Languages - वीडियो के साथ अंग्रेजी बोलना सीखें

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