Why your reasons NOT to learn a language are just EXCUSES

为何你不学语言的所谓“理由”不过是借口而已

Learn Languages with Steve Kaufmann

2026-08-14

6 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

I was with some Canadians recently who all agreed that French would help them professionally. Within a few minutes I had heard three reasons why they hadn't learned it: I can read but I can't speak, the Montreal accent is too hard, and they changed our class this year. Every one of those puts the problem somewhere outside the person saying it. I lived in Hong Kong where nobody spoke Mandarin and I learned Mandarin anyway, because I did the listening and reading. What's the reason you give yourself?
更多

单集文稿 ...

  • Why is it that people don't succeed at learning languages?

  • I'm going to talk about the excuses people use.

  • For their lack of success in language learning, and I'm going to explain what's behind all of this.

  • I was with some people today, and they, at some level, were very interested in learning French.

  • These were Canadians.

  • Professionally, it would be very helpful for them to learn French.

  • And from them, I heard three excuses, which I have heard before, and I will add a few more.

  • So one was to say, you know, I understand well, and I can read well, but I have trouble speaking.

  • Now, my answer to them always is, do you listen to audiobooks?

  • Can you understand audiobooks in French?

  • Can you read a novel from cover to cover?

  • Have you ever tried listening the way I do with Many Stories at Link,

  • where my statistics show that, for example, in Turkish, I've listened to some many stories 60, 70 times.

  • I mean, when you are really motivated and when you understand that you need to get that...

  • That language sort of ingrained in your brain,

  • you need to generate those connections within your brain, you actually need a lot of listening.

  • And when you do that, lots of listening, you start to anticipate the next word, as I've said before,

  • and you start to be able to plan and project your next utterance, and you start to become...

  • Fluent in the language.

  • So the excuse to say, well, I'm kind of there because, you know, I can read,