What Claude Cartaginese has kindly made available

Claude Cartaginese is editor of The Polyglot Project, an eBook, freely available online consisting of 48 accounts from a range of individuals about how they learned (and didn't learn) one, two or more languages. Even several polyglots. 

Each wrote from just a few paragraphs tens of pages (over 100 in one case, the final entry by David James).

For me, the book is a goldmine. It was my starting point for figuring out how languages may best be learned best. It is filled with clues that pertain to language acquisition. I'd recommend the book to anyone thinking about learning another language. It is bound to save you hundreds of hours.

The first thing that struck me was that almost contributor was initially put off by schooling and grammar. It didn't help them. All but about two or three sucked at school - or at least they failed at foreign languages. It was only afterwards, on their own, using methods that they discovered through trial and error, that they began to succeed.

Notice without concentrating

Learning a language is a delicate balance between extensive and intensive application.

When you are doing things in an extensive way, you process a lot of text lightly, skimming over it, skipping the stuff you don't know, being satisfied with grasping the overall story. 

The intensive approach is more intense. You concentrate hard on the language's features and try to remember them. 

That's study, in other words. That's work. It's forcing your short-term memory to do a job it's not designed to do. It's like heaping on the fertilizer in order to achieve artificial growth. And then you return the next day to see that your plants have collapsed. Or, if they still stand, see that they have mutated.

Nevertheless, you need a balance of both approaches. The balance point should favor the extensive side, but it's human nature to try to control the learning process by heaping on the intensity.

Don't think of 'learning', 'studying', 'memorizing', or 'drilling'. Instead, think of noticing various features of the languages as you gloss over it.

Miyamoto Mushashi tells us to perceive that which cannot be seen.

Yesterday I noticed that with Spanish some words start with a double 'L' and that sentences may not start with a capital if it is a 'small' word such as 'y'. I noticed how n's with a ~ above them are pronounced. 

I must have noticed a 100 or more features. Each time that they do, they seep into my long-term memory a little deeper. I internalize them naturally. And all those features support each other in an organic, holistic, intertwined . . . what's the word I'm looking for?

Notice without concentrating

Learning a language is a delicate balance between extensive and intensive application.

When you are doing things in an extensive way, you process a lot of text lightly, skimming over it, skipping the stuff you don't know, being satisfied with grasping the overall story. 

The intensive approach is more intense. You concentrate hard on the language's features and try to remember them. 

That's study, in other words. That's work. It's forcing your short-term memory to do a job it's not designed to do. It's like heaping on the fertilizer in order to achieve artificial growth. And then you return the next day to see that your plants have collapsed. Or, if they still stand, see that they have mutated.

Nevertheless, you need a balance of both approaches. The balance point should favor the extensive side, but it's human nature to try to control the learning process by heaping on the intensity.

Don't think of 'learning', 'studying', 'memorizing', or 'drilling'. Instead, think of noticing various features of the languages as you gloss over it.

Yesterday I noticed that with Spanish some words start with a double 'L' and that sentences may not start with a capital if it is a 'small' word such as 'y'. I noticed how n's with a ~ above them are pronounced. 

I must have noticed a 100 or more features. Each time that they do, they seep into my long-term memory a little deeper. I internalize them naturally. And all those features support each other in an organic, holistic, intertwined . . . what's the word I'm looking for?

And the easiest language to acquire is . . .

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.

Something happened to me when I was 15

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.

A daunting prospect

Most people can’t contemplate learning a new language simply because the prospect of doing so is too daunting. And of those who try, only 1 in 20 succeed. Why should that be?

Is it the time that’s required?

Is it embarrassment at the thought of making mistakes?

A little, perhaps. But I feel that the biggest impediment is the tedium, frustration and hard work that they imagine such a project would involve.

And that’s fair enough. Who would willingly endure such stress? Who’d try, unless they had a damn good reason? And no means of escape?

But if there was a way to eliminate, or to bypass, all of that hardship, what then?

Why then, the sky would be the limit!

Teachers and teaching

There’s nothing wrong with most teachers. And there’s nothing wrong with most teaching pedagogies. (MOST of them, I say.)

But when it comes to languages, avoid both. Maybe not as much as you would The Plague, but avoid them nonetheless.

Teachers/teaching and languages don’t mix. Sorry. They’re like oil and water. 

Why do I say that?

Because no one ever learned a language from a teacher.

It’s true. No one in the history of the world ever learned a language thanks to being taught. They learned it themselves! 

Look, a teacher can help, get you started, maybe motivate you a little, but you are the one who puts in the hours!

At a pinch, you might consider a coach. But make sure that you have an equal say as he or she. (I used to be a teacher, so I know what I'm talking about.)