Don't let spaced repetition into your language learning routine!

Описание: People tend to believe one of two things about language learning:

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00:00 The harm of spaced repetition
01:30 What is spaced repetition
02:00 I have a few questions about this
02:40 Dutch after 30 years
03:11 Forcing ourselves to practice like robots
03:49 Understanding languages as a system
04:34 Forgetting is not a problem
04:48 How do we organize this?
05:15 Spaced repetition causes to not own a language
05:40 Be the hero of your learning

Either scientists have figured it all out, or anyone can teach a language, which is very much what we’re seeing today.

Look at the top 30–40 names in tutoring and language influencing and you’ll notice something striking: almost none of them are actually qualified. Most have never studied linguistics or language learning at any serious level.

This is not a rant. This is a calm, serious video meant to save you time and fundamentally change how you think about language learning.

The Problem With “Scientific” Language Learning Let’s go back to the scientists — or more precisely, linguists. One idea that keeps being pushed as the solution is spaced repetition. In my view, it’s one of the most misunderstood — and most harmful — concepts ever applied to language learning.

Spaced repetition comes from Hermann Ebbinghaus, a 19th-century psychologist. It’s a memory technique where information is reviewed at increasing intervals to fight the forgetting curve.

On paper, it sounds brilliant. In practice, when applied to language, it collapses. The Questions Nobody Asks How do you know what I’ve actually forgotten? How do you organize an ever-changing language system with thousands of words? Does this work for grammar logic, sound systems, or intuition — not just vocabulary? Why is forgetting treated as a failure, as if memory were black or white? And why would we want to remember things we’ll never need?

Forgetting Is Not the Enemy
Spaced repetition: treats language as isolated fragments, turns learning into mechanical discipline, forces you to fight forgetting instead of understanding, and prevents you from ever truly owning the language.

You become a caretaker of a system — not the hero of your own learning story. Language is not something you manage. It’s something you internalize. Languages Are Hierarchical, Not Chaotic Languages are structured systems:

Once you understand how languages function, forgetting words is never a real problem — only a temporary state.

That’s how we approach language learning at Ouicommunicate.

OuiCommunicate teaches online French to adult learners https://ouicommunicate.com

#LanguageLearning #FrenchLearning #polyglots #spacedrepetition #LearnFrench