Alex Senoner

I'm so grateful and excited for the chance to give a presentation at the upcoming Polyglot Conference in Taipei! 😃

Having a bad study session > not studying at all

Learn languages every day

#langsky #study

The logic of traditional language education:

Can you understand a film? No
Can you read a book? No
Can you have a conversation with someone? No
So what are you gonna do? I’m gonna review the rules for using the conjunctive.

Thanks. I also found it invaluable once I had understood how it works and how to use it.

Have you ever learned IPA to help improve your pronunciation?
Do you find it helpful?

#languagelearning #langsky

Daily recap 🗓️
- watched 2 episodes of HxH in Chinese

LinguaMerse
- wrote 1 chapter of Russian course
- created 10 Russian articles

If you had to learn German again from zero, what would you skip entirely?

#learngerman

If you could go back 10 years and give yourself some language learning advice, what would you say?

#langsky

What language are you currently learning?

#langsky

What is your reason for not learning any Indian languages?

#langsky

YouTube video by Alex Senoner German is EASIER than you think

I truly believe that learning German is easier than many people think.
Yes, mastering the grammar is difficult, but you can get by without that. German shares a lot of vocabulary with English and much more.
Check out my video to find out what! youtu.be/os7zCl9bQsc 🙂

Yes, certainly children don't spend much time thinking and worrying about things and are dedicated to absorbing everything around them: sounds, smells, languages, etc.
So, they're just absorbing everything 24/7. And they don't have their "native language" interfering with learning a new one.

Why do you think we learn languages so much more easily as children than as adults?

Or is that actually not even true?

#langsky

Of course not, and I also mentioned that in the video.
But what I'm trying to point out here is how with small changes in our daily efforts we can reduce the time to reach fluency by several years.

YouTube video by Alex Senoner The Reason You’re Still Stuck in a Language (And How to Fix It)

In a recent survey I saw that most language learners spend 3 hours or less per week studying a language.

Can we ever become fluent at that pace? 🤔

I tried to analyse and answer that question in my latest video → youtu.be/JFMUw8jJGcU

#langsky

How is your language learning going?
What are your main hurdles?
What methods have you been using?

#langsky

Does any of this resonate with you?

4. Consonant clusters

Polish has heavy consonant clusters (wstrząs, przyszcz), while French avoids them and often inserts vowels (e.g. étudier).

That smoothness, combined with nasalization and schwa, may strike Poles as “slippery” or “mushy”.

3. Vowel reduction and schwa

French has many instances of the schwa [ə]. Polish vowels are comparatively stable and pronounced clearly in almost all positions.

A system with many reduced, central vowels may sound “mumbled” or “indistinct” to a Polish ear.

2. The "r"

The French “r” is a uvular fricative [ʁ], while the Polish “r” is an alveolar trill [r], closer to Italian or Spanish.

The French /ʁ/ often sounds “gargling” or “rough” to speakers of languages with trills, and can be perceived as harsh or unattractive.

Maybe. Here's what I found:

1. Nasal vowels

French has nasal vowels (e.g. bon, pain, un), which don’t exist in Polish. To Slavic ears, nasalization can sound “muffled” or “unpleasant,” especially compared to the clear, oral vowels in Polish.

Interesting. What are your native language if I may ask? Maybe there's a correlation to French or something.

Is that still the case with Swedish? Because unfortunately in the Netherlands, many people don't want to speak Dutch with you, even if you're fluent.
I don't remember that attitude in Sweden, but I lived there 10 years ago, it may have changed.

Italian on the other hand has lots of open vowels, melody, and rhythm. Compared to Italian, French actually has more closed, nasal sounds and fewer pure vowels. So, to an Italian, French may sound a bit closed in the nose or even monotonous.

From a more scientific angle, I read that English has a lot of stressed syllables, reduced vowels, and sharp consonants. French, by contrast, has smoother vowel transitions, nasal vowels, and relatively even syllable timing. That creates a musical flow that feels exotic and elegant to English ears.

Thank you.
Yes, I also agree that exposure, experience and perhaps stereotypes shape these perceptions a lot.

Do you think certain languages are objectively beautiful or does it depend on your own language?

E.g. I often hear Americans say that French is so beautiful, but growing up in Italy I rarely heard that.
I wonder if it sounds beautiful to American ears more than to Italian ears.

#langsky

I'm off to Indonesia for 10 days to attend a wedding and see some parts of the country.
I had planned to learn Indonesian but sometimes life happens and I just didn't get around to doing it.

But it's okay, there'll be another time. 🙂

YouTube video by Alex Senoner The Mental Switch to Becoming Fluent

When we struggle in our target language, it's stressful and exhausting.
But if we understand better how our memory works, we can reach fluency much faster.
I discuss in this video how to stop thinking and start knowing a language.

youtu.be/N_YWotHm6O8

#skylang

Nice, really impressive 🙂
I guess in the end it comes down to personal preference. Even if there are different language families, I still wouldn't really enjoy starting two languages at the same time. It sounds stressful to me. 😁😁