Measuring progress 2

Here's one way to measure real progress.

Take a short story. Classify its words into 3 groups, according to how well you know them. Group 1: you've a pretty good idea; group 2: you've a rough sense; group 3: not at all.

Next, find your total score. Group 1 words score 2, group 2 words score 1, group 3 words score 0.

Finally, express it as a percentage: 

(total score divided by number of words x 2) x 100

The story below has 439 words. Group 1 has 244 words. Group 2 has 40 words.

So my score is 528 and my percentage is 60%

When I repeat this analysis on the same story at a later date, I'll have a measure of my progress.

(Two weeks later, not having reviewed this story in the interim, my score improved to 77%)

EL PRIMER POZO

Había una vez un pequeño reino alrededor de un lago. 

Un verano muy caluroso no llovió y el lago se secó.

La gente estaba ansiosa y fue a ver al rey.

“Hace tanto que no llueve.

¡Nuestros campo están desiertos!” dijeron los campesinos.

“No hay peces para pescar.

¿Cómo podemos ganarnos la vida?” preguntaron los pescadores.

“Sálvanos del desastre, Buen Rey,” suplicaron las mujeres y exclamaron los niños con sed.

El rey envió a sus cuatro generales a buscar agua en todas direcciones.

El primer general fue hacia el este, hacia el amanecer, el segundo al sur, hacia el polvo y el calor, el tercero fue al oeste, donde se pone el sol, y el cuarto siguió a la Estrella del Norte.

Buscaron día y noche, noche y día, arriba y abajo, buscaron en todas partes, pero en vano.

Tres de los generales regresaron, con las manos vacías.

Pero el general que fue al norte decidido a no fallar a su rey, llegó finalmente a un pueblo frío de montaña.

Al sentarse al pie de la montaña, llegó una mujer anciana y se sentó a su lado.

El general señaló hacia el horizonte y dijo: “Yo pertenezco a un hermoso reino, donde no ha llovido durante un año entero.

¿Me puedes ayudar a encontrar agua?”

La mujer animó al general a que subiera con ella la montaña y adentro de una cueva.

“Nosotros tampoco tenemos agua en nuestro país,” dijo ella.

Entonces, señalando las columnas de hielo en la cueva, ella continuó, “Nosotros a esto lo llamamos hielo.

Toma un poco, y tu reino nunca más tendrá sed.”

El general rompió un gran pedazo, lo cargó en su carreta de caballos y regresó velozmente a su reino.

Cuando llegó a la corte, el enorme bloque de hielo se había derretido y quedaba un pequeño trozo.

Nadie en la corte había visto nunca hielo, ¡y todos lo observaron maravillados!

“Esto debe ser una semilla de agua,” exclamó uno de los ministros de pronto,

El rey ordenó que la ‘semilla de agua’ fuera sembrada inmediatamente.

Mientras los campesinos cavaban un hueco el trozo de hielo se derretía al sol.

Ellos colocaron la semilla en el hueco pero antes de que pudieran cubrirla, desapareció.

Los campesinos estaban confusos y preocupados.

Cavaron la tierra más y más hondo, en la noche buscando la misteriosa semilla.

Al romper el alba, el rey encontró a los campesinos dormidos profundamente al lado del agujero.

Se asomó curiosamente al interior y exclamó sorprendido, “¡Despertar mis valiosos hombres, el agua ha germinado!

¡Hay agua en el agujero!”

Así es como fue creado el primer pozo.

Use your dictionary LESS

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. 

Have fun with random words

Introduce a bit of frivolity into your life! Use a collection of vocabulary items and access them at random. Play games with them, as for Scrabble. Combine the words. Connect them in some way. Create faux-sentences (and accurate ones if you like).  
That way, they lose their power over you. Your awe of them diminishes. They intimidate less.

Really, playing games is good for you—gets you into a state of flow. The outcome of games isn’t a matter of life and death. In a game, you can afford to get really into it without ultimate risk. Your skill improves by playing games. In games, you can do a lot of useful work without it feeling like work.

To sum up, turn language learning into a ‘mind game’.

Connect words, connect the dots . . .

Words are not enough. Just knowing the words won’t make you able to use another language. And besides, going about the business of learning a language one word at a time is almost completely useless.

Witness Japanese where I know hundreds of words but cannot connect the dots. I may every separate part of a sentence but have no idea what the whole is about.

You see, there is a hell of a lot that you need to know about words in order to fit them together. And a single dictionary meaning doesn’t give you that. Therefore, from the word go, work with more than one word at a time.

Go for pairs of words, phrases, whole sentences at a gulp. Don’t always, or even usually, break them down into their components. That way you get a lot of extra associated input: grammar patterns, word co-locations, concordance, general usage etc.

Sit sentences from two languages side by side. Do it the way that Heinrich Schliemann did.