The video discusses a method for understanding complex sentences in a foreign language when you already know all the words. The main issue is that learners often try to fit foreign words into the structure of their native language, which can hinder comprehension. The video suggests a three-step process to decipher challenging sentences:
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Atomize the sentence: Confirm that you know all the words and seek clarity for any opaque terms or those requiring a secondary definition. This step aims to ensure a solid understanding of each word's meaning.
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Brainstorm the sentence's meaning: Look for connections between words and think in terms of structures, such as subjects and objects, to help make sense of the sentence. If things aren't clicking, read the preceding sentence to see how it flows into the current one, or read the next sentence to see if that unlocks the original one. It's also helpful to list out different theories on what the sentence could mean and poke holes in those theories to narrow down the possibilities.
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Repeat the sentence out loud and read it multiple times: This helps eliminate novelty as the cause of confusion and allows for reading the sentence with different emphasis or word groupings, which can further clarify meaning.
If these steps don't work, the video suggests skipping the sentence temporarily and coming back to it later with more context and information, or moving on to understand and enjoy other sentences to keep building language skills. The video also emphasizes the importance of developing a new engine for processing the world using the target language, which goes beyond just knowing individual words.
Summary for: Youtube