Use your dictionary less. That's the topic of this post. And I expect that it will prove to be a contentious one. Nevertheless, dictionaries symbolize everything that's wrong about our beliefs about learning a language.
Dictionaries have a certain image. We're beguiled when we see them lined up on a shelf. Like the advertising for Coca Cola, they promise a succession of wild women, powerful cars and endless summers. In their own way, of course.
The sell an image . . . well, more of myth. They strengthen the belief that you can obtain a language via a book. Which is true to a certain extent.
Let me try to say it more clearly: dictionaries reinforce the notion that you can learn a language one word at a time. Bit by bit. With a dictionary you can look up unknown words and learn them one at a time. You'll master their spelling, meaning and usage. And then go onto the next word.
That's wrong. It's the stumbling block to language learning. That is not how languages are learned naturally. And that is not an approach that works with any degree of effectiveness and efficiency.
But I can understand how people feel; I felt the same way (and still do from time to time when I forget my better set of principles).
By all means, use a dictionary when you must. Just do so judiciously, because they are great time wasters.
Consider using a dictionary which explains words in the same language as the words you look up. Use one that has plenty of example sentences from the real world. Don't use a dictionary that tries to convey the pronunciation using the alphabet and sounds of your language. Choose a dictionary that gives you an idea of how common each word is in spoken and in written speech.
Also good to know is which words your word goes with. In which situations is it used? Is it colloquial, jargon, slang, or old-fashioned? Does it come from another language originally?
Don't forget that a single word is an abstraction. A single word carried little meaning. We hardly use them except in response to questions that require a one-wold answer (e.g. blue), or to give a command (e.g. stop!).
Words require context, and it's in a context that you ought to learn them.
What's the easiest language to acquire?
That's a trick question, because EVERY language is easy to acquire.
Every normal child has learned their mother tongue by the age of 4 or 5 despite starting out with nothing! No dictionary, no grammar rules, no prior language, not even the ability to use their vocal apparatus nor an understanding how to decode the noise of their environment into words.
Learning to speak is not an excruciating experience for an ordinary human being.
But sure, if you turn acquiring language into a ‘learning’ exercise complete with a timetable, lists of tasks, compulsory exercises, expectations, tests and the like, then any language becomes difficult.
Diving into water is difficult if you do it the wrong way. I would imagine that falling onto the finest, fluffiest goose down feels awfully painful if you hit it at a high enough speed. Walking is unpleasant in a deep sea diving suit. Breathing is difficult if you do it through a straw.
Learning to speak another language is not at all difficult for an ordinary person if you do it the normal way.
And what is that ‘normal’ way?
Hint: It doesn’t involve study.
In my 16th year, at school, something happened to my brain. I learned to learn.
It was only a small change, I admit, but it brought about a huge change. Within a term I leaped effortlessly to the head of the class in those subjects that dealt largely with concepts—Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and to a certain extent Mathematics.
I figured out that all I had to do was listen. I would listen to the teacher with the aim of understanding what he was talking about. I asked questions until I did. And then I sat back, satisfied, and relaxed. That’s all I had to do, and it worked.
I never did anything else. I didn’t memorize information. I didn’t complete the exercises. I hardly did homework. I didn’t study, although if I was interested I might do a little reading around the topic.
Since then, this approach has always succeeded. The only times I’ve ever done poorly with my academic work was when I strayed from those principles and tried to learn via conventional methods. If I treated the subject ‘seriously’ and formally, then it wouldn’t go well. I’d stress out. I’d fail. I’d quit.
Now then, what if I was to use this approach with learning a new language? (At school I’d dropped Latin and French the previous year . . .)
Instead of trying to memorize rules and vocabulary, I would just notice patterns and see how the language worked. I’d expose myself to it in a light, wide and shallow way. I wouldn’t analyze, study or try to learn in any way. I’d just express interest.
Therefore, I wouldn’t feel the slightest strain. I wouldn’t put any pressure on myself. I’d avoid all stress. It would be fun. It would be easy.
And I'd go to the top of the class again, I’m absolutely certain.
How do you determine what the best way to learn a language (or languages) is?
Two obvious approaches:
- See how the best language learners are doing it, and take a leaf out of their book (a leaf that you save).
- See how the worst language learners are doing, take a leaf out of their book . . . and do the opposite (i.e. you throw that leaf away).
I've been exposed to both ways in Japan these last few years.
I've been researching into the techniques that polyglots use, so as to apply them myself to learning Japanese. I've observed how the Japanese try to learn English (and realized that I share some of their less than ideal whatchamacallits).
They study seriously. They waste a lot of energy. They do it formally. They analyze ad infinitum (until the cows come home). They try never to make mistakes. They use shaming techniques on each other. Their humbleness becomes negative self-talk. All sorts of things like this are going on here.
And as I say, I share some of those tendencies. I may have picked them up from them to some extent, but I had many of them before I came here, to be fair.
So anyway, if things aren't going all that well, try doing the opposite. You may well end up in a better place!
So as to keep this project a game instead of an obsession I bring in the die (dice) and kitchen timer.
The timer is for measuring off intervals, naturally. For everyone there must be an optimum amount of time to engage on an activity. It may be as little as 10 minutes. Or it may be as much as 90 minutes.
Bringing in a dice introduces a random factor.
Let's say I roll it twice. Then there are 36 possible permutations. I can divide these up between my languages: 15 for Japanese, 10 for Dutch, 5 for German, and 6 'free' rolls that allow me to do what I want, or to start another language.
Furthermore, I can divvy up the 15 Japanese throws to the different activities I've chosen to do: say 5 for kanji, 3 for sentences, 2 each for lJrE, lErJ, and lJrJ etc.
Do in your second language what you do in your first
What do you do with your first language? Do you like to chat, read the newspaper, listen to the lyrics of sings, watch action movies, read self-improvement literature, keep a diary, surf the Internet?
Whatever you enjoy doing, it’s a fair bet that you’d enjoying doing the same sort of thing in the language that you wish to learn.
By the same token, if there’s something you dislike doing in your own language then it’s a recipe for disaster to try to do that type of activity to learn another language.
Stands to reason, doesn’t it?
Me, I’ve always enjoyed reading, including children’s books, biographies, comics. I don’t like TV as a medium. I surf the web a lot. I don’t like to engage in conversation. Knowing this gives me a good idea about what to try to learn another language.
I discovered good quality children's stories in Turkish (and in many other languages) that use subtitles at the above link. BookBox.com
Learning another language has never been easier, surely. You don't need to spend money or time finding something suitable. There's no effort involved. What an amazing period in human history!
Make hay while the sun shines.
So yesterday I cycle down to the local Mac after tea with my 6-year old. We've lights for getting back in the dark. I order a small latte and she's satisfied with milk.
Anyway, at one stage I've got Harry Potter going in German--both audio and text. Following along nicely understanding most of it. For fun I open the Norwegian audiobook. Listen to it while using the German e-book to read. It's a blast!
The languages that I choose to do are to a large extent going to be determined by what resources are available. There's a lot of Polish and Swedish out there (torrents) not to mention Dutch and and a few others.
Next time I'll work out my initial starting points for the languages I've looked at so far. For example:
- Dutch: can understand 75%, can guess the other 25%
- German: understand 50%, guess another 25%
- Swedish: understand 15% guess 25%
- Norwegian: understand 10% guess 20%
Don't go by a rule book.When learning a language, don’t accumulate rules in your head.
Now, I realize that this advice is wildly counter-intuitive. But consider.
Every rule that you learn is just one more thing to remember. The more of them that you learn, the greater is the chance that you forget them.
And even if you never forgot a single rule, do you think you’d ever learn all of them? No one has, even the top linguist ever. There's no end to them. They are continually being discovered.
But the worst thing about rules is that they clog up your mind. They are worse than cholesterol on the brain. Every extra rule demands a larger and larger lexicon of material to refer to before you open your mouth or touch a keypad.
They inhibit you from using the language. You ask yourself: Is this right? Is that wrong? Is this an exception to the rule? Does this application of the rule conflict with another rule?
Final point: How many rules do you know and think about when you use your own language? None, right?
Do you ever stop to think about when to use the article 'the'? You know that there are about 63 rules just about that word alone, didn't you?
So you’ve got yourself some authentic material meant for the users of whatever language you want to learn. In other words, you have a book of some sort—dead tree, electronic or audio. Maybe even a movie . . . comic . . . whatever.
Now what?
Well, it’s not going to be ideal. It’s not going to be perfect. It will be at a level that’s too high for you, or too low. It may not be in an area that you’re interested in. It may be too ‘newsy’ or too ‘chick lit’. Again . . . whatever.
But that’s okay.
The way to work around this problem is to match whatever activity you do with the material that’s at hand. So you do something suitable with it. Everything is suited for something.
You need to choose what you do to achieve the right balance of a number of factors. (Draw a Venn Diagram if you want.)
Choose what to do with what you’ve got so that . . .
- You process a lot of language: amount
- You minimize the effort: easy
- You maximize the results: effective
- You make it fun: enjoyment
This way, you won’t waste time waiting for the prefect resource to come along.
