April 2025 Inner Circle: The 7 Skills You’ll Need for Language Mastery

Lesson Transcript

Welcome to Inner Circle.

I'm Kyejin and I'm joined by my co-host, the founder of innovative language, Peter

Galante.

Hi, everyone. Peter here.

So, Kyejin, in our last lesson or our last talk, we spoke about how to learn a language

faster with...

Coaching.

And today, we are going to talk about...

We're going to talk about seven skills you need for language mastery.

Okay.

Sounds very interesting.

Yes.

I want to know about these skills.

What are these five...

Not five.

Seven skills.

So, we here at innovative language break it down into seven skills.

There's reading, writing, speaking, listening.

Four skills.

Then there's...

We add grammar, vocabulary, and finally, culture.

Okay.

So, these are the seven skills.

Why is it important to learn these seven skills?

Is it important to learn all of these skills?

Yes and no.

So, if you have a specific purpose, if you're leaving for a foreign country next week, you don't need them all.

You kind of need to be able to speak and I don't know, whatever you feel you need, just a few words.

So, it's kind of relative to your commitment, your motivation, your goals, right?

But if you're serious about committing time to it, yeah, kind of you need all the skills.

Okay.

Why is it that...

But hang on.

Yes, yes, yes.

More...

It's like what your goals are.

You have to ask yourself what your goals are and what your timeline is.

So, any language study is good.

But if you want to comprehensively get better, you're going to need all, but if you have a short-term goal, if you're an opera singer, you just need to be able to say the words without any accent and sing or sing the words without any accent, right?

You might not really need to know what it means.

So, it just depends on your goals.

Okay.

So, can I finally ask this question?

I would love to know because I know most of the learners are interested in speaking.

So, can they just practice speaking only?

Why are these seven skills important for them to learn all?

Yeah.

And that's why I mentioned these pairs before.

These pairs are kind of important.

If you're going to be speaking, and speaking is by far the number one most popular skill people want to learn, but it's kind of like if you're going to speak, you need to understand what is said, right?

True.

If not, you won't be able to have a conversation because you speak, listen, speak, listen.

And arguably, the least important is writing, and for me, each learner is unique, each approach is unique, but I always start with reading.

I always start with reading.

Reading.

Okay.

Why do you start with reading?

Because if you're reading, then you can read out loud, so you're kind of practicing reading and speaking at the same time.

You can constantly immerse yourself in a language by always being, having something to read in front of you or using the internet to read material.

And for me, it gives a good basis to extend out into the other skills.

I see.

How about you, Kayjin, where do you like to start?

Yeah, I actually agree with you.

I usually start with reading, usually the dialogue, reading, and also speaking, too.

Yeah, I read out the dialogue or I try to speak with the teachers or native speakers.

So speaking and reading, those are the first things.

Plus, of course, I think we talk about these seven skills, and I didn't intend to learn each skill separately, but naturally, I combine these skills and learn together.

For example, as you just said, I read and also speak out, read out the text, then it also helps the speaking.

Also when I speak with the native speakers, then I also listen, and I also pick up some words.

So naturally, I think I'm combining all these skills when I learn.

Yeah.

There's the four skills that we spoke about, and then there's these other skills.

There's grammar and vocabulary and culture.

So let's start with culture, because this is kind of an interesting one.

Culture you probably even start before you study a language, like you may be familiar with some Japanese culture before you even start learning a language.

Because people watch the anime or...

Or read poetry, as yes, but sure.

Yeah, read or manga or like...

Or novels.

Movies, novels, great.

Or watching the TV shows or Japanese news, I guess.

Yeah.

There's many things, but even one step back, you may come into contact with some Japanese things such as origami, or you may understand some etiquette of bowing, or you may, if you've eaten sushi, understand some greetings that are said to you when you enter or exit a sushi shop, or you understand how to use the chopsticks.

Some of these facts pour.

And this applies to other languages too.

You may understand more about the culture before you even start to learn the language.

But when we study the language, culture is not a language itself.

Is it still important to learn?

I would argue that culture may be more important.

It's one of the most important things.

It's kind of like, right, you only get one chance to make a first impression, right?

So in Chinese culture, when you toast, you will lower your glass depending if you're toasting with someone with higher social status or grandma or something like this, right?

Is it something similar in Korean culture?

Do you have a custom when drinking?

Yes, exactly.

I think it's exactly the same.

So I lower my glass if someone is higher social position than me.

Yeah.

So inside of Japan, this isn't so widely, like this culture isn't so wide, but I always

And sometimes I'll meet someone who realizes like, wow, you're very refined.

Your culture or understanding is at a very high level.

And even the Japanese people, like what's going on?

Sometimes they don't even pick up on this.

So in this case, this is kind of an extreme case, but that small cultural detail allows me to have a very good impression on someone.

And if we reverse that, again, we'll borrow Japanese culture.

If you stick your chopsticks into the rice and release them, and no matter how good of an impression you're having on someone, it could come across as, wow, you know, wow,

This guy's Japanese is amazing, amazing, and then all of a sudden, this cultural misstep can result in maybe some very big consequences in that other person's image of you.

So yeah, culture, I think, is very important.

Yeah.

And also, if you want to understand the details, nuance of the language, I think understanding culture helps a lot.

Yeah, I remember when I was teaching English, too, one of the best examples I could give of this, I was teaching a very high level student, and the very high level student spoke so fluently on so many topics.

And one of the classmates sneezed, and the person said nothing.

And one of the way lower levels was like, bless you.

And I was like, I remember after the lesson, I wrote, that person's English is really good because it was not comparable at that level, but the understanding of the culture and the timing of that particular thing totally changed my perception of that person's understanding of the language.

Yeah, true.

And those are really interesting examples.

Yeah, cultures, I agree, cultures are important.

Yeah.

So that's why I think it deserves to be a skill.

Then much like social skills and table etiquette is very important.

Yeah.

So if you want to use the language appropriately, yeah, culture helps.

And today, yes, you look great.

No, no, I was taking my elbows off the table because you're not supposed to do that well.

So I was thinking about the table etiquette.

Okay, okay.

Right?

Like if you have your elbows on the table, it's not appropriate, you should have your elbows.

Yeah, especially when you have a meal.

Yeah.

Well, we are not having a meal, so I guess it's okay in podcast culture.

True.

I guess.

Okay, a bit distracted here, but then we move back to the grammar and vocab.

So these kind of support the other skills, right?

The better your conversation and your conversational skills, the better your speaking, the more you need to lean on your vocabulary and grammar.

Yeah.

For me, I actually start with grammar.

I pick 10 grammar patterns, especially conditionals, if something, something, which are actually complicated grammar, but I like to try to master those first.

Wow.

Do you have a preference for grammar vocabulary?

Well, I definitely start with the easiest one, like I am or it is, yeah, always.

I start with that one.

And then I move to the question and also giving an order or like, please do something.

Please give me this.

I want this.

Yeah.

And then the grammar patterns are nice because they're kind of fixed and you can repeat them over and over.

Yeah.

And if you know a different vocabulary, then you just replace the word and you can make tons of the sentences.

Yeah.

So.

And that vocabulary is kind of straightforward here.

There's lots of things out there, including content on our site where you can see the most common words, right?

So that really helped from when I first started studying Japanese, where the words were quite random, not related to the frequency.

Yeah, true.

So learning the words that are commonly used are something that we should learn first, especially for beginners.

Okay.

So we spent quite a bit of time on this.

Kyejin, why don't we talk about how our members can practice these seven skills and what we'll do is give examples with our learning system.

And of course, you can apply these to your current, how we are learning right now.

Maybe there's something new and maybe we already covered something.

Good idea.

And actually, when if our viewers is our premium or premium plus users, they just need to follow our curriculum to master these skills.

But there is a way to improve their skills, like for example, if it's speaking, we have lots of tools on our website, like dialogue, roleplay, so they can practice roleplay with

AI.

So wait, do you want to start with speak?

Let's go skills one by one.

Let's start with speaking.

Sure.

Okay.

Speaking.

How about the dialogue roleplay or voice recording tools to repeat after each line and compare with a native speaker.

Okay, that sounds very, very good.

So those are the ones that I actually use.

If you're familiar with the system, of course, you're progressing along a pathway.

A pathway is centered around a conversation.

Right.

It's not always a monologue, but usually a conversation has multiple people involved.

So the kind of goal is that you would master that conversation.

Right.

And inside the conversation is usually grammar and vocabulary.

True.

And also culture tips.

So which we usually break down.

So we kind of help you with the pronunciation.

We go to slower speeds.

You could hear the kind of intonation and things like this.

So inside of the audio and video lesson, there's usually a point for you to practice your speaking.

And that is using a technique called shadowing.

Okay, Kyejin?

Yeah.

So shadowing dialogue, for example, you listen to the dialogue and read after each line.

Yeah.

So you can repeat after you hear something, you can repeat at the same time, as close to the real time speed as possible.

And that should help you.

Also at the end of certain lessons, there is a practice that gives you time and a prompt to speak.

So it'll say, how do you say cat in Korean?

And it'll pause and it'll give you time to kind of actively recall it and then say it out loud.

Yeah.

So our lessons are especially focusing on, of course, focusing on many areas too.

But we really, these lessons really help people speak well.

And yeah, I really like the shadowing.

Also recording my voice and comparing with the native speakers using our voice recording tools.

Yeah.

So what we're speaking about now is, again, if you're passively studying, you're listening to the podcast, there's times for you to speak, actively produce something.

Now Kyejin just mentioned, of course, that's on the site.

You can go to the site and these tools are on the site or in the app.

First one is to listen line by line and then record yourself practicing.

And also you can record yourself and send it to your Premium Plus teacher if you have access to My Teacher Messenger app.

So these are, then you get actual feedback from a teacher.

So these are two ways to use the system and there's another way that we recently introduced, which is the dialogue roleplay.

Yes.

So this is a new feature on our website and you can choose one character and play a roleplay with AI.

And the AI will help you by giving you feedback on your performance.

Yes.

It's your grammar or vocabulary.

So it's a very interesting tool to try.

Yeah.

Okay.

So lots of things for speaking on the site, as that's a very popular thing.

Now let's move on to speaking's kind of counterpart.

We have listening.

So listening, as I mentioned before, there's quite a lot of content that is based around conversation.

You can listen to an audio file.

You can watch a video, which gives you visual cues while you listen along.

There's also vocabulary and sample sentences on the site that you can play over and over.

We have dialogue specific tracks so you can listen to conversations again and again.

So there's quite a lot of material for you to enjoy.

Exactly.

We also have listening comprehension series too, if you only want to focus on the listening skill.

So that would also be useful.

Yeah.

And audio books we have too.

You can listen.

The listening not only like the audio book or the listening with a podcast that we have not only will help you improve your listening skills, they're also prompts to speak aloud.

And we're covering inside of these conversations, vocab, grammar, culture, you're listening and you have the opportunity to speak.

So these are done very well and meant to progress in a comprehensive way.

If you take a look at the curriculum, you can see the grammar points you'll learn, the vocabulary you'll learn, and as you progress, you can kind of test yourself to see how much you're retaining.

True.

Okay, so shall we move on to reading now?

Yeah.

Okay.

Again, this is my favorite.

So for each lesson there, we have the text for everything that is said.

So the whole transcript of an audio or video lesson.

And we also have lesson notes for each lesson.

So let's take the audio files first.

So as you're listening along on the website or on your device, you can read along.

Right.

So you can see everything that's said in the conversation and you can see everything that was said in the lesson itself.

True.

So for higher levels, this is quite nice because you're getting all of the things that are said.

And also additionally, we have the extensive reading video series or other reading comprehension videos too.

So check it out if you're interested.

Yeah.

And what you can then do is you can practice reading out loud on your own and you can also communicate with your premium plus teacher.

Ah, right.

Actually, when I have a conversation with my premium plus teacher, they write in the target language and I read a message.

So that's also involved reading.

Yeah.

And if you're writing to your premium plus teacher, the teacher will write back in that target language.

So you can prompt your teacher with a journal entry to get some corrections.

You can ask a question to get a response.

So these are all very good ways to practice your reading.

Yeah, true.

Okay.

I think we talked about the reading now.

How about the writing?

I think writing is another of your favorite skills to study, right?

So our system for writing is slightly limited.

So the best way to practice your writing is to have a premium plus membership and communicate with your teacher.

And also another good way to practice writing is to copy the dialogues.

So the dialogues are written in the target language.

So you can copy the line or you can just listen to the dialogue and do some dictation.

That will be also nice writing practice too.

Yeah, these are powerful ways to study by yourself.

But yeah, if you do have your premium plus teacher, you can write down something, take a picture of it, and send it to your teacher for feedback.

Yeah, they'll give you the corrections.

And if you request, they also record the lines for you and send the audio file.

Yeah.

Okay.

Next, we have shall we do grammar?

Of course, grammar, yes.

So our lesson is focusing on one grammar per lesson, right?

Of course, it depends on the lesson.

But if you follow our main core pathway, that will be the grammar lessons.

Each conversation is usually centered around one grammar point, which we break down in the lesson itself to help you get a better understanding of it, help you use it.

So this is the number one way to get introduced to grammar points and learn how to master

them.

True.

You can also find the grammar rules in the lesson notes and also the grammar page on our website.

Yeah.

So you can each lesson see this, plus in some of our textbooks, we have grammar points.

So plenty of information on grammar.

Yeah.

Also, they can take some assessment to test their grammar skills.

Yes, as you progress, before you progress and afterwards, we have many tests to see how your comprehension of grammar relates to your progression in the pathway.

Yeah, true.

And if you also write to your teachers, you can also practice grammar with a teacher.

So that is another way to practice grammar.

Yeah.

I think we have a few series, too, that are specifically focused on grammar.

Yes, that's true.

So if you find these series on the site, you can learn how to master the key grammar points for the level that you're at, usually for beginner levels.

Yeah.

Okay, so shall we talk about the vocabulary now?

Yes.

So all rules lead back to lessons in a way, and so each lesson, there's quite a comprehensive and especially over a kind of unit of lessons, you really get introduced to quite a lot of vocabulary.

Right.

And if you are very enthusiastic, and you want to learn even more vocabulary, we also have the word list on our website.

Plus, there is a spaced repetition of flashcards that helps you practice the vocabulary.

So that's also another good way to practice vocabulary.

Yeah, these smart flashcards will help you learn faster.

And the words are broken down by frequency.

We have the core 2,000 words.

So the first 100 words have a higher frequency than the next 100 words.

So if you start from the beginning and you get to about 800 words, you've got a really good grasp of, not a great grasp, but you have a very good foundation for speaking the language.

Yeah.

And 800, 1,000, 1,200 up to 2,000, right?

Yeah.

In addition, there are many series designed around vocabulary.

True.

And whenever I see new vocabulary on our website, I save that on the word bank.

So just to review the vocabulary, well, I mean, there are so many vocabularies.

I can't always write down on my notebook because I'm on the train sometimes or I'm going somewhere.

So then I just save it on the word bank for review later.

Yeah.

There's also Word of the Day.

You get one new word every single day.

So there's many ways to improve your vocabulary.

Yeah.

Plus, do you remember we also have PDF CCs with a lot of words and phrases.

So it sounds like with us, with our system, you will never run out of learning materials if you want to learn more.

Yeah.

Okay.

And last, we have culture.

Yes.

And for the culture, we have some cultures already introduced in our each lesson, right?

Yeah.

So as the language learner and language teacher walk you through progressively through the curriculum, we're constantly introducing interesting cultural nuance and cultural skills so that you can navigate many difficult situations.

Yep.

We also have the culture lessons and also in our textbook, cultures are introduced too.

Yeah.

Wow.

So these are the seven skills.

How you value them, that's an individual choice.

But if you do want to get a comprehensive, if you want to have a comprehensive approach to learning language, these are the seven skills you need to focus on.

And this is how we would go about it using our platform.

Yeah.

And you can extend this to how you study with your teacher.

If you have your teacher, maybe there's a transcript or the teacher that you meet with to keep track of all the words.

This is kind of up to you, but try to see the language learning skills as these seven skills.

Yeah.

And yeah, as just Peter said, there are many ways to learn these skills, but if you don't know how to make, how to practice these skills, just follow our pathway, then you can just master these skills easily because our program is well designed for that.

Okay, Peter.

So if our viewers only remember one thing from this lesson, what should it be?

There's no right way to learn a language, but there are, as we like to say, seven skills.

And as long as you recognize what skill you're learning every day, your progress will really start to move fast.

So for example, if you're listening to an audio lesson, the main skill that you're focused on is listening.

Sure, you can speak inside of it by shadowing and you can talk out loud when you're prompted, but the main skill is listening.

Of course, if you have a lesson with a tutor or live or speak with your friend, the main thing is speaking, unless some people might want to read.

So just kind of understand that there's usually a main skill.

But after that main skill, you can practice other skills.

Like if you're reading, you're practicing grammar, vocabulary, but you're really focused mainly on reading.

Be aware and then try to balance the week.

If you're always reading, just keep track of how you're progressing.

If you're always reading, you might want to try practicing some writing, or you might want to try to practice some speaking, not just passively learning, but try to produce something.

Right.

So it's very important to balance our learning instead of focusing on one thing if someone wants to be truly fluent in one language.

Yeah, and producing something, I feel, is much harder.

So trying to speak or write, you need to pull on vocabulary, grammar, and culture, and all these things to actually make something.

So try to realize that you should practice productive skills, such as writing and speaking.

Okay, that sounds very good.

So for everyone watching, please let us know what you think.

And if you have any thoughts, let us know by email.

Email us at inner.circle at InnovativeLanguage.com.

Thank you, everyone, and see you next time.

Bye-bye.

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