There is a myth that only children can new languages
And of course it is not fair to yourself that you compare the hour of exposure to a new language with a child. There is no doubt that a native child should have more exposure than us
To have a fair comparison, both adult and child to learn a new language, say Spanish, adult can beat children. The cutting edge we have is we know how to learn.
There are three advantages that children have:
1. between 6 months to 12 month of growth, child can hear the new language
2. children have no fear to participate in a conversation that they do not really understand
3. Children have plenty of time to learn a new language
His journey of learning a new language
Hebrew 7 years
Russian 5 years
nuclear physics
singing opera
German French Italian
He signed a contract that he cannot speak other language when he is learning a new one
Only 7 weeks he can hold a solid conversation with native speaker, and being addicted to have a feeling in thinking in a completely new way
After that, we pursue a degree in Germany, and then he learn Italian and finally learn French.
He cheat in the online exam, and the examiner think his performance so good that arrange him to have a 15 minutes talk with a native speaker.
There is a way to learn new thing
Spaced Repetition System, sth like flashcard
It is so artificial that recap what you need to learn at the moment you nearly forgot it
Another essential thing is that experiential learning is crucial
Memorise are not only stored in your brain, but also in all parts of your body
images, sound, impression, smell, taste, temperature, feeling, core value,
so the words will stick with you
The words without any connection with us will fade out.
using image to learn language
have the vocabulary, learn sentence using fill in the blank
learn grammar by story
after the placement test
he read 10 books, 70 pages of essays
If you want to learn a language efficiently, you need to give the language life
every word should connect to our senses
language is to help you communicate and tell a story
he has passion in learning language, 25 languages
why learn language and how
He found some problems in learning a language nowadays is that
we are being put to a test to learn it which is so suddenly rigidly organised, compartmentalised, rationalised, expressed
Learning to communicate with others is fun
In his journey of learning a language,
he know how to
- break down sound
- pick up a foreign accent or pattern
- really live with it
After years, he still cannot have a fluent conversation with native speaker
Learn latin breakdown language into system, still is not a like a conversation to him
Hebrew
Listen to rap music, chat with native speaker once a week, by this practice routine, he surge his ability in speaking the language, though not articulately, and not grammatically correct
Arabic He could read and write without a problem and learn the basics of the language and the major dialect
Another leap forward is that he record his speaking a new language with subtitle, and then broadcast that to YouTube
And finally he got some response from others that to facilitate his learning, like correcting his pronunciation, grammatical mistakes, appreciation, etc..
He hello world, and form a community in learning a language
Still, he encountered obstacles
He has no idea how to teach himself, what to learn and next
He recalled what he learned in a latin lesson called method of loci
is the learn something with the help of mnemonic, something like flashcard
He learns a list of vocabulary with the aid of diagram, that is to integrate the learning with spatial memory. For example, he associate surrounding with new languages, to stimulate the memory.
That make language more interactive and interesting
He embrace all the similarity and differences in languages, hear one word in the similar pronunciation but different meaning in language, it triggers the rest. So he can learn multiple language in one time.
Why learn so many languages?
There are linguistic diversity, should we be monolingual?
Getting more exposure with other people
There is a wise saying
There is a strong connection between language, culture and thought
You can see how humble people are through learning their languages,
Like asking a Persian how much is the price and the response would be saying the product is worthless,
Saying nice to meet you can be replaced by May I sacrifice my life for you
So learning a language can change our attitude interacting with others
The response is melodramatic, poetic, but we really need to understand the culture to get the meaning
culture's mindset
Learning more languages is a way to combat with the hegemonies about the monolingual, assimulaiton, globalisation. It is a way to preserve the culture of diversity of tribes.
mythology, history, folklore
language represent a cultural world view.
You can translate words easily, but you quite translate meaning.