Can you get fluent just by watching videos?

I interviewed Hassan, the founder of Arabic All the Time. It's a bit like a podcast, and we go quite psychological about how you stay motivated through learning a language. Because of our different experiences, we have different views on some things. Hassan teaches through comprehensible input, which means watching content that's just the right level for where you are at the moment. He makes videos in Arabic for that, but the principles apply to any language.

What is comprehensible input?

Hassan's definition: it's any input you receive, through audio or visual, listening or reading, that you understand. What's comprehensible changes dramatically with your level. What's comprehensible to an absolute beginner is nothing like what's comprehensible to a high-intermediate learner. People associate the term with videos for absolute beginners, but that's one type. A podcast made by natives for natives can be comprehensible input if you're an intermediate learner.

In the end it's about understanding the message being communicated, not every word. That's something I try to tell people on my channel: you don't have to understand every single word to get the gist. When I speak English and someone says a word I don't know, I don't dwell on it.

It's hard at the start

Hassan said it's very challenging in the beginning, however comprehensible the input is. For the first 20 to 50 hours it's not that intuitive. Our brains like comfort, and listening to a foreign language takes a lot of attention. Once you get used to the rhythms, it gets much easier, and you can build up hours at a much faster rate.

His tips: relax. If you can follow roughly what's going on, all you need is time. And in the beginning, the goal should be to build the habit, not to advance in the language. If you build the system, the results take care of themselves. Getting a bit of listening in every day is what guarantees solid results long term.

Should you use subtitles?

This is the dilemma and the reason platforms like his exist. Traditionally, people didn't have easy listening material for beginners, so they were given the misguided advice to go watch movies and TV shows. Those can be comprehensible when you're advanced, but if you're starting from zero, they're very demotivating, and that's the kind of advice that makes people think language learning isn't for them.

His rule of thumb:

• Subtitles in the language you're learning can help high-intermediate and early-advanced learners. Earlier than that, you can't read and listen at the same time, so find something easier.
• Translations into your own language aren't a good long-term strategy. You can switch them on to catch a key part you missed, but on all the time, your brain follows the path of least resistance and reads in the language it's comfortable with.

I added that this is the translation problem. The difference between learning a language and being fluent is that fluent speakers don't have to translate what they hear. If you're watching with English subtitles, you're adding that translation piece. Hassan agreed it's near impossible to avoid translating completely at first, and that's fine. The solution is to lower the level of what you're listening to until it's comprehensible, not to reach for translations.

There's a big range between super basic and native. Vlogs are very rich in context, and podcasts are usually focused on one topic with less frequent changes and dramatic surprises. TV shows are a level up.

Audio-only counts too

When I was learning Italian, I had a 40-minute commute and I listened to a podcast called Italy Made Easy. The host speaks clearly, and I had it on 0.8 speed. At first I didn't understand much, but eventually I picked up more words. Hassan said that's comprehensible input too: any input you receive and understand what's going on. There'll always be some trial and error when you try new content. His first 20 hours of native podcasts on YouTube weren't easy either, but then his brain picked up the patterns.

His advice if you're losing motivation because nothing's going in: don't be patient and keep listening to that stuff. Find something easier.

Speaking

Hassan delayed speaking for 550 hours of listening Spanish. Then, when he started losing motivation, he booked a one-way ticket to Spain and spent two and a half months in the south, using almost only Spanish. He wasn't fluent, but people were shocked he'd learned it through videos. He couldn't read or write, but he could converse, made friendships and enjoyed it.

I argued for the other way. When I did my Erasmus year in Spain in 2013, I arrived knowing 1 to 10 and "a beer, please". I started saying random things and getting feedback straight away. If someone wants to speak early, copy what a baby would do. Say a word, and that gives you evidence that what you're saying can be understood.

Hassan's concern was pronunciation: if you've never heard a sound, how can you produce it? But he also said you do need speaking practice eventually. Speaking doesn't emerge from nowhere. His example: almost 500 million Arabs acquire formal Arabic through news and books, but most freeze when they try to speak it on the street. You need roughly 20 to 50 hours of speaking practice, and the first 50 will be rough. But with lots of input behind you, force yourself to speak for a week or two and it comes to the surface.

Fitting it into a busy life

Hassan's advice: don't expect it every day to feel like progress. It's like the gym. If you go every day for six months, you'll look better, and you don't need to weigh yourself every day. Show up every day, get some listening time in, and assess after six months.

He started with 15 minutes being a challenge, and worked up to three hours a day over about a year. And habits are easy to lose, but you can come back. With input, you don't forget what you've acquired the way you forget memorised vocab. It's a subconscious process.

I said that's one of the best things for a busy lifestyle. You can listen on your commute, half your brain asleep and thinking about the meeting you've got, and still have French or Arabic going in the background.

Motivation, not method

If you lose motivation, Hassan's view is it isn't the method that's failing. Diagnose the problem: reignite your reasons, or rebuild the habit. You don't change the method. Language learning is about time and motivation. If you have the motivation and you spend the time, you will acquire the language.

If you only have a few minutes some days, show up anyway. Just walking to the gym keeps you in the loop. Make it easy to show up. And some friction is worth paying to remove: if you're using YouTube for content, YouTube Premium is worth it, and so is a tutor for accountability.

Progress you can see

I asked how you make progress more visible when you're two weeks in and losing motivation. Hassan said: try something harder. If you're losing motivation, you may be bored, and it's too easy. And go back to videos you watched when you started and compare. You'll notice your comprehension changing.

He also made the point that some days you'll just do worse than others. Especially at the start, your level varies a lot, and as you advance, the floor goes up. I tracked my metrics in Voco: my grammar accuracy is about 30%, because I hate grammar, but my speed is high. Some days you can't find the word for "car" even in your native language.

Is there such a thing as a language gene?

Hassan doesn't believe in it. There are outliers, but the rules apply to the majority. He lived in Montreal for six years and doesn't speak French. His Spanish is much better, simply because he used comprehensible input for Spanish and didn't know about it when he arrived in Quebec. Two of his sisters learned Turkish to native level without meaning to, by watching Turkish drama: about 2,500 hours.

My take: our brains naturally want to understand the patterns in what's happening around us. If you expose yourself to a language, your subconscious will absorb it whether you like it or not.