#readwise # Benny Lewis: TEDx Talk on Rapid Language Hacking ![rw-book-cover](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HZqUeWshwMs/mqdefault.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[Benny Lewis]] - Full Title: Benny Lewis: TEDx Talk on Rapid Language Hacking - URL: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HZqUeWshwMs ## Highlights - On Grammar > When you learn a language in school which many of us do, most of it is grammar. I have learned German in school and, for me, German was just "Der/Die/Das" tables of complicated structures and it just totally intimidated me. And this is not a language. This is not a language. This is a list of rules that are as good as mathematics or something like that. It doesn't work. The thing about language is language is a means of communication. When you try to put it in a box of grammar, then you're not allowing yourself the freedom to communicate freely. I actually like grammar. I'm not anti-grammar. I'm not going to say to burn all the grammar books or whatever. But what I've found is a lot more effective is if you embrace speaking and speaking wrongly. I encourage people to speak with as many mistakes as possible. I aim to make at least a hundred mistakes a day if I'm learning a language. Then I know I'm getting somewhere because I'm using it with people. ([Time 0:11:37](https://annotate.tv/watch/616c273e30ce3a000967ce39?annotationId=616c28e2952b3e000844ac73)) - On Fear of Speaking with Native Speakers > I think the biggest thing for people is that they feel they're going to frustrate the person they're speaking to. That's the biggest problem I hear. You're going to talk to this person and they're going to get angry. "You're butchering my language. "How dare you?" It doesn't work like that. I kind of feel this is ironic when I hear people tell me this. That they're going to annoy the person they're speaking to. Well, actually, most people I've talked to who are kind of considering learning a language, I see a lot of frustration in their eyes just from the fact that they don't speak it yet. I've actually met people here who are in San Antonio and they are surrounding by Spanish speakers and they can never communicate with them. They feel so frustrated by this. And this is a lifelong amount of frustration that I feel is so much bigger than any kind of a... You know, talking to somebody, that they might kind of roll their eyes or whatever. But that doesn't happen. It's actually, among non-English speakers, I find all around the world, when you try to speak the language with them, they're so overjoyed. They're like, "Wow. He's trying to learn my language. "He's not expecting everyone in the world "to speak English." You actually get encouragement. People keep telling you, "You're doing a great job." Even though you're aware your grammar is bad. You're using the same ten words over and over again for the first few days. But that's fine because you're starting to communicate with people. This is the thing that's missing is this idea of communication. A language is not this kind of thing that you test for and that you can either be right or wrong. It's not a black or white thing. It's how human beings talk to one another and there's no wrong way of doing that. If your words are a little strange or you forget to conjugate your verbs or whatever, people will always understand you. I'm sure you've heard people speaking English to you that was a little broken. You always understand it. So I think the problem people have with the frustration is they feel that the whole world will end if they try to speak the language. If they go up to this person and try to speak it, the world will end. I actually think the opposite. I think a whole new world will begin if you try and speak a new language with people. ([Time 0:15:01](https://annotate.tv/watch/616c273e30ce3a000967ce39?annotationId=616c2b42952b3e000844ac74))