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recently I've got a lot of questions
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asking how I learned Chinese and also a
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lot of questions asking how native
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English speakers learn English how do
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Americans remember so many English words
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so I thought I'd make a video talking
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about my language journey and also share
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some tips and techniques for learning a
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language as an adult without any
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language environment especially if you
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struggle with memorizing words this is
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going to be really helpful so make sure
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to stick around to the end I've been
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learning Chinese for about 6 years now
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and a lot of people have asked how I was
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able to reach a relatively fluent level
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and honestly being in the classroom
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environment really helped me a lot in
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the beginning it was really helpful to
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have a teacher teach me the basics and
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give me a foundation in this language
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but a lot of the work for me also came
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from outside of the classroom especially
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in situations where you don't have a
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language environment and you're not
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surrounded by this language every day
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and you can't practice these basic daily
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conversations so it's really important
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to try to make the environment for
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yourself and put in the extra effort
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outside of class I would surround myself
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with as much Chinese as I possibly could
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so I would constantly watch TV shows
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movies and I would listen to Chinese
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music while I was walking around campus
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and really anything to help me listen to
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more Chinese and get more input I would
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constantly take note of the new words
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and phrases that I heard and write them
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down and I have so many notebooks just
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filled with me repeating the same things
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over and over and writing everything I
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heard down but most importantly is that
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I would talk to myself in my head using
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Chinese for example if we learned a new
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word or phrase or even sentence
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structure in class then I would try my
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best to really Inc incorporate that into
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my inner monologue so even though nobody
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would be there to practice with me I
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could still practice with myself and
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this is really important because if you
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honestly want to improve in any language
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then the key is practice and spending
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time to really say all these words
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phrases and structures that you
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encounter and another key point is not
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just focusing on one single word or
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phrase but putting it into a sentence
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and understanding how it's really used
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in real life because if you spend a lot
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of time just repeating one word over and
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over and over you might be able to
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remember it but it's going to take a lot
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of extra effort and brain power and it's
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not really applicable if you don't know
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how to use the word properly so instead
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I would recommend finding some more
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examples of how to use this word and
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this way you can really understand and
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deeply feel the meaning of this word and
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you'll be able to use it naturally and
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when other people use it you'll be able
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to understand what they're trying to say
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this is also important because in real
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life conversations or when we're reading
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a paper or a book or something like that
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these words are never really isolated
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they're never just alone they always
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have some context and we can use this to
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figure out what they mean the use of
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context clues is actually how a lot of
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native speakers learn a lang language no
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matter what the language is for example
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if your native language is Chinese how
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did you learn it your parents and the
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people around you would constantly be
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speaking in this language so as a baby
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you just start to pick up on the sounds
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and the words and you eventually start
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to speak it on your own and this is the
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natural way of learning any language we
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connect words to real life objects and
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we learn new words based on how other
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people use them in different contexts
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even native speakers make mistakes when
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learning their native language but each
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mistake is just a step closer to fluency
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and we can use these methods when we're
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learning a foreign language as well I've
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had a lot of people ask how Americans
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learn English like do we have to
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memorize a lot of words too or do we
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have English classes or what do we do
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when we encounter a word that we don't
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know we learn English the same way that
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anyone else else would learn a native
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language but in order to go past a very
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basic level of English native English
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speakers also have to spend time
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studying English in school for example
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when we're younger we have to do a lot
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of spelling tests and memorize the
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spelling of new and longer words as we
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get older we also have to learn how to
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analyze English writing and we have to
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learn how to write an English paper and
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we spend a lot of time learning about
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English literature
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and also history as well so English is a
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big part of our curriculum English is a
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very wordy language so naturally there
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are a lot of words that we might not
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know the exact meaning of and even as
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native English speakers we have to spend
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time learning these new words there are
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a few different methods of learning
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these new words but I'm going to share
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one common method that is going to be
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very helpful we'll call this method the
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context clues method it's also used a
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lot for learning English when it's not
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your native language and I've summarized
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three main steps for you to follow but
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just keep in mind this method does
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require a little bit of a basic English
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understanding to use it when we see a
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new word that we don't know in a
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sentence first we need to figure out the
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basic and general meaning of the overall
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sentence like what's the tone or what
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other words could we put in place of
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this new new word and still have the
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whole sentence make sense and this is
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the core of using context clues second
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we use context clues or the information
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surrounding this word to make an
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educated guess on what this new word
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really means and then the third step is
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to finally use a dictionary to confirm
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our educated guess and doing this also
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reinforces this word in your brain and
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helps with memorization this is really
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important because if you see a new word
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and you just immediately go to the
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dictionary or you immediately translate
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this word to understand what it means
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and then quickly move on without even
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understanding the context of how to use
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this word it's actually going to be
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really hard to remember the word and
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understand how it's really used so
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checking with the dictionary is
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important but it should be the last step
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using your brain to understand the use
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and meaning behind these new words is
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actually going to give you a deeper
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impression and help you understand the
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Practical use of the words and
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eventually this will make things a lot
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easier in the long run I also used this
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method when I was learning Chinese and I
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think it's part of the reason why I was
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able to pick up on things so quickly
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while I was listening to these TV shows
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and movies and anything like that in
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Chinese if I saw something new that I
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wasn't sure of exactly what it meant
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instead of just directly translating it
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I would look for it in other contexts
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and slowly start to understand the
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meaning and how it's used and honestly
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when you rely too much on direct
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translation of words and phrases then a
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lot of the times you'll start to lose
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the nuance and the feeling of a language
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it's also really important to remember
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that learning a language no matter what
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the language is takes a lot of time and
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persistence it's taken me about 6 years
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to learn Chinese without knowing
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anything about the language previously
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but only in the past year have I started
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to really kind of connect the dots and
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become a little bit more fluent in the
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language I spent years just
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understanding the sounds of Chinese and
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memorizing sentences and words and
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phrases and talking to myself a lot all
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of these steps were needed for me to get
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to where I am today so my biggest piece
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of advice is don't give up I hope this
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video was somewhat motivational for you
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no matter what language you want to
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learn and I hope that this technique is
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going to help you a lot in your studies
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so let me know if you have any other
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questions about language learning and
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I'll see you guys next time bye-bye