The best method to learn Japanese: https://mvj.link/xf38b0

Matt vs Matt

I think a lot of people misunderstand this debate because they treat ‘input’ and ‘output’ as if they’re mutually exclusive, when in reality they’re complementary stages of the same process. Delaying output too long can absolutely slow down fluency, confidence, and real-time sentence formation, because understanding a language passively is very different from being able to actively produce it under pressure. But at the same time, forcing heavy output too early , before building a strong intuitive foundation through immersion , can lead to awkward phrasing, constant translation from your native language, and fossilized mistakes that become hard to unlearn later.
The real key is balance and timing. Massive input builds your internal sense of the language: pronunciation, rhythm, sentence structure, word choice, and what ‘sounds natural.’ Output then stress-tests that knowledge and exposes the gaps you wouldn’t notice through passive understanding alone. You need enough immersion to develop intuition, but you also need enough active usage to turn recognition into automaticity.
In my opinion, the best approach is probably consistent low-pressure output alongside heavy immersion instead of treating them as separate phases. That way, your speaking ability grows organically while still being guided by natural input from native content. Coming from a native English speaker who reached a near-native level in Portuguese, I can tell you that from experience. But of course, Japanese is way harder, lol. Matt is spot-on

It’s great to see your opinions evolve over time. That’s awesome growth and shows you aren’t stuck in your ways, which is a must for any lifelong language learner.

This last videos Matt is literally doing the opposite than the old Matt, omoshiro

Great video. Also a constant reminder to never follow any online influencer religiously, always draw from a few sources. And FYI I'm actually a fan of Matt.

I'm smelling a business opportunity that pairs language learners wanting to do this together

I am one of the people you described that has waited for years to begin output. I have a huge amount of anxiety in the idea  of speaking with a native speaker, I can confirm that much lol.  You were one of the people who inspired me to begin this journey 5-6 years ago. I've been trying to build up to do output anyway and I'll be forced to in August since I have a trip planned. I've been Journaling and trying to do whatever I can alone to work on it but you are right in that I'll have to bite the bullet.  Anxiety is a bitch.

Just want to echo that lot of what you said really reflects my own personal experience as someone who inputted thousands of hours across different domains before really trying to improve at speaking. I tried putting an emphasis on native podcasts/youtube for natural every day speech / vocabulary, while also mining from anime on the side because I liked to watch it. When I first started speaking I just drew blanks, both to nervousness/pressure and lack of experience. Or I'd recall words but I wasn't sure if it was natural in the situation so I'd just suppress it unless I heard a native say it in a conversation within the domain I was speaking about.

Though the big thing for me is like you said, once you start speaking it changes the way you look at input. Like a feedback loop that helps to fill whatever missing words you needed when you were trying to speak from past experience. It also helped me to get over that "ego" and just become comfortable with the idea of sounding like ass, now I'm able to pretty comfortably speak in front of natives that I'm not close with, while still learning and improving all the time.

The identity thing is something I can also kind of understand. I'm okay with not sounding perfect but I do want to sound as good as I possibly can, both for personal reasons and so as to lessen the burden on the listener, so I'm always paying attention to any sort of difference in my speech vs the natives around me.

You have a good way of explaining these things

so happy to have you posting videos like this again

“I’ve been following you for a while. You know, only stupid people never change their minds. If you realized that producing output earlier is better, then it’s good that you said it. I think you’re a really clever guy who is doing is best to understand and study how language learning actually works. I encourage you to keep it up!

Adding my anecdotal evidence:
I grew up speaking two languages and went to school entirely in one of them. At the same time, I was also learning English and German at school for roughly the same number of years. By the end of school, I couldn't speak a single word of German. English was different, I had been immersing myself in it for 10+ hours a day since around age 5. When I moved to the UK at 18, I could speak it fine without any intentional practice beyond what we did in school.

Fast forward 15 years, and I've hardly used my original school language during that time (most of my friends and family speak my second language). Whenever I go back home, it usually takes me 5-7 days before I stop sounding clumsy, stumbling over words, using awkward phrasing, and even slipping into a strange accent (though my comprehension remains 100%). After about a week, I'm fully functional again and my native accent comes back naturally.

No idea what to make of this :D

Thank you for admitting to your contribution to the impression that inputting for a very long time without output will help your output sound more natural from the beginning. I feel like I had this wrong impression for a while until I just “ripped the Band-Aid off”.

It’s refreshing to hear your amendments to your advice from what you actually experienced. It’s validating my own experience as I reflect on the times I attempted to output Japanese.

I looked to you for sound advice in this area, and to hear your admissions and your current understanding on things has helped.

Matt's ideas really shape the way I see language learning!

A video about writing would be very welcome at this point.

Thank you for the video!

Matt retroactively proving all my intutions right lmao

8:10 another advantage of crosstalk is that it's an excellent input source since it could be especially tailored to your level and interests, and i can imagine that for rare languages that don't have a lot of media it would be the only way of getting good input.

I was born in a country where my whole family, and basically everyone around me, spoke one language. But all the content I consumed, books, movies, internet, was in a completely different language. Until I was 18, I genuinely thought I was fully fluent. And honestly, in many ways I was. I could read anything, write better and more naturally than a lot of native speakers, and my vocabulary was probably even bigger.
But the moment I actually opened my mouth to speak at 18, I realized I had a HORRIBLE accent. My speech apparatus literally just wasn’t trained to produce sounds the way native speakers do. And the worst part is that I hear it myself too. I know exactly that I don’t sound right, but it’s not something you can magically fix fast. So from personal experience, I’m convinced that immersion alone is not enough.

I am glad that someone who was a part of the immersion community has come around. I would push back a little in that output early isn’t even bad as long as you are getting ample input at the same time. In my experience those who develop bad habits from “output too early” aren’t those who output too early but rather simply don’t get enough input in general or feedback about their bad habits.

guys don't worry about sounding perfect just talk.. the more you use the language the better you'll get. idk about most people but usually the goal of a language is to speak it so just go for it thats what ive been doing and ive made so many friends, most people dont care about how good you are at the language the important thing is youre trying and thank you for coming to my ted talk

I’m glad you changed your opinion on this one compared to a few years ago. Output skills won’t just magically develop from many hours of input. People want to believe it can because they want to escape the awkwardness of sounding bad when they first start speaking. It’s unavoidable as you said.