Unleash your lingo: how to learn a language

What they really mean by 'Broaden your horizon.'

2010-11-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

      An important concept in learning anything is in the understanding that it happens in plateaus, or levels. To illustrate this, let’s take a look at something called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. In essence, what it says is that a person who knows a great deal about a subject is likely to underestimate their skill and knowledge, and conversely, that same person will likely overestimate his knowledge on something he knows little about. Consider the old saying, “The more I learn, the less I know.”
      For example, in massage therapy, after getting a license, the therapist is required to take Continuing Education classes once every two years in order to keep the license valid. A new therapist who needs to take a CE class might say to himself, ‘My certification class already taught me about anatomy and technique, so I think I’ll study Reflexology for my requirements.” Another student who decides to further study technique instead, will find that there is a lot more knowledge to be gained that was simply skipped over in the original class, just for ease of explanation.
      Certification courses will very often exclude lessons on massaging around the neck and spine, simply for liability purposes. If Student B hadn’t taken a following class in neck and back massage, he may never have learned a more complete view of the same subject.
      Indeed, The phrase, ‘field of study’ is more precise than most would imagine. Every subject is a veritable landscape of knowledge, appreciated fully only through intrigue and exploration. Climbing these learning plateaus is the scholastic equivalent of taking the high-ground.
      In language, this could mean not just learning vocabulary, but the very formations of a modern language.
      For example, many of you may already know that English is a Germanic language that comes from the Saxons et al. This is why words in German and English are to this day astoundingly similar. ‘Hund’ means ‘Dog (hound)’; ‘Sonne’ or ‘Sun’; ‘Komm hier’ for ‘Come here.’ Even the English days of the week come from Norse Gods, not Latin. Wednesday is from Woden’s Day, Thursday from Thor’s day (consider the French word for Wednesday, Mercredi or Mercury’s day).
      But from the Norman invasion of England in 1066, the aristocracy and the ruling class of England was replaced by the French speaking Normans, causing a linguistic revolution! The language of higher learning became French, and so we have an incredible mixture of both in the modern English language. The modern word Sun is Germanic in origin, but words we use in its scientific study are Latin. We say, Solar flares, or Lunar eclipses (the words in Spanish for Sun and Moon are ‘Sol’ and ‘Luna’).
      As in the earlier massage therapy example, it would be like saying, “Well, that college Spanish class taught me enough vocabulary to get by. I think I’ll start learning Thai.”
      There is always more to learn. After a certain level, just reading a book about Spanish won’t help you make new friends in Mexico. You have to get out there and use it. Remember what Niels Bohr, Nobel Prize winning physicist said, ‘An expert is someone who has made every possible mistake in a very narrow field.

      Get out there today and start making mistakes.

Listen to learn, learn to listen.

2010-11-06T17:22:00.000-07:00

      A much neglected aspect of conversation, even in one’s mother-tongue, is the very simple act of listening. Most of us -think- we’re listening, but in actuality we’re busy thinking of the very next thing we want to say and then waiting for the other person to stop talking.
      Listening, as we’ve all been told, is more than just hearing the words someone is speaking, but really paying attention to the meaning of the sentence. DON’T do that! As an exercise, today, for just TWO minutes, when you’re listening to somebody speak, try to pay careful attention to exactly what they’re saying. That is, listen and make note of what words they’re saying, repeat them to yourself if you like. Think of other conjugated forms of the same word, and just generally try to focus on the -sound- of a word and try to get at its meaning from there.
      This is exactly the problem that has plagued language learners around the world who mistakenly subscribed to the ‘vocabulary vomit’ method of learning; memorizing words and trying to spit them back out at somebody in order to communicate. You’ll be heard, but what you think you’re saying isn’t what you mean. (In fact, this is often true of even your native language.)
      Here is the simple trick that you can put into practice TODAY, and not only expedite your language learning, but enhance your everyday interactions as well. Instead of trying to listen for words you’re familiar with in a song or a sentence; simply believe that every word the speaker is speaking means something. Instead of just trying to listen, you’ll be opening your ears to the meaning that gets through. Whether or not you agree with the person’s point of view, you can believe that that what they’re saying is true for them.
      The truth is that using a language is the same as breathing. You can control it when you paying attention, but as soon as you let your subconscious take control, it becomes natural and automatic.
      Remember, let the meaning of conversation come from the person, not the words; the way it was meant to be.
      I’ll leave you with a quote from one of my favorite books, ‘The Little Prince’ by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, first in French, then English:

      J'aurais dû ne pas l'écouter, me confia-t-il un jour, il ne faut jamais écouter les fleurs. Il faut les regarder et les respirer.

      “I should never have listened to her," he confided to me one day, "One should never listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance."

      Until next time, be well and always keep learning.

What is language?

2010-10-30T16:24:00.000-07:00

To really understand the concept of language, we first have to rid ourselves of the idea that every language is just a list of words we have to memorize; that as soon as we can recite most of its words by rote, we’ll be fluent. This is more than just untrue; it’s keeping your language skills back.

The Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras believed that mathematics was the language of the Gods. In fact, the opposite is true; language is what creates math as we use it. Don’t believe me? Consider this, as you’re reading the words on this page, letters, symbols that stand for sounds are being interpreted cognitively and subconsciously, forming your understanding of this sentence. Wouldn’t you agree that the sum total of all of these little symbols we call letters is greater than them all individually?

Just like any sentence has its own meaning, the written equation 4 + 4 = 8 has the exact same meaning as “a four plus a four is equal to an eight,” or in Spanish, “cuatro mas cuatro es ocho.” The concept of what we call “Four” is the same in any language.

Did you have trouble learning long division as a kid? Don’t worry about it! The universe doesn’t operate by long division. If a rock breaks apart, do you have 0.625 of a rock left over? Nope! You get two rocks and that’s that! Math operates like English in much the same way that a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square.

What this means for language, is that just about every concept we have for understanding the world and our own place in it, is based in our language. The Nü Shu language, for example, is only understood by women, and only in Jiangyong County in southern China. Do you think they might have just a slightly different perspective on their lives than you have in yours?

For today’s lesson, all you need to remember is that a language isn’t just a set of grammar rules and vocabulary, it’s the self-expression of its own culture, and so are you. This is why learning a new language can open your perception to ideas you might never have thought of before.