The "people" who paint the picture of what learning a language looks like via immersion straight up LIED. I was lead to believe that you go to a foreign country, you become immersed in whatever language it is you're trying to learn, it swirls around you 24/7 like some linguistic hurricane and you just stand in the rain and soak up the knowledge like a sponge until one day you wake up and realize your pronunciation has improved vastly, your speaking fluidity has leaped bounds, your vocabulary is limitless, and your confidence is through the roof.
LIES I TELL YOU! HUMONGOUS HEAPS ON THE CRAP WAGON IS WHAT THAT IS.
Sorry to be crass and a debbie downer but it is better that you know now, in case you're thinking about learning a language (which despite all my complaining I actually recommend).
The thing is you're not a sponge. You're just not. And neither am I. The vocabulary doesn't seep into your brain the way I was led to believe. I have to look up words now more than I ever did. I have to spend entire social interactions on the fringe jotting down the key words I don't understand so that I can go look them up later and pray that that exact same interaction comes around again so that I can participate the next time.
You know when someone says something rude to you and you're silent in the moment but then you think of a witty comeback 2 hours later? It's like that.
I have to teach myself the language now, just like I had to teach myself the language back in Berkeley. The ONLY difference is now my motivation to actually go and look the words up, or review the verb tense, is born out of greater necessity. In theory if you could mentally conjure up this same sense of urgency right where you are now, you could be well on your way to fluency from the comfort of your own home, or office desk (Ha! I caught you. Get back to work), because actually the work you'll have to do is the same.
To summarize part I of my epiphany: you're not a sponge, you're a mule. And if you wanna make progress, you're going to have to sweat and labor while abroad to cram all that vocabulary in your head the same way you would if you were learning vocabulary in a class in your hometown.
 |
| NOT YOU. |
 |
| YOU. |
Part II
In addition to learning a language not being anything like the process of absorption it's also not a linear process either. I've studied Spanish in school now for 12+ years and up until this trip the learning process has been sort of like climbing a staircase.
First you learn the basics: greetings, numbers, present tense verbs and their accompanying pronouns. Step 1.
Then you move onto speaking in the past tense. Step 2.
After that the teach you all the exceptions to the grammar rules that your learned in steps 1 and 2 (bastards). That's step 3. Step 3 is annoying.
Then you learn how to talk about the future and deal with doubt. example: "I would do this, if this happened... or, I might do this." Step 4.
But generally you learn a verb tense or a grammar rule and you can apply that to a broad spectrum of words and situations. Then they give ya another one to throw into your bag of communicative tricks and you make that an option. You escalate the stairs building on the grammar rules you learned before until you know all the grammar rules and have practiced them enough to be able to use them comfortably and correctly "on the fly" and voilá! you're fluent.
I thought that being abroad would be the practicing and fine tuning portion of this linear process.
It ain't.
I've found being here that my fluency is patch-worked together rather than developing steadily in a solid line. I find myself fluent in certain interactions that I do often, like checking out at the grocery store or adding more money to my transit card. I can even get through it unrecognized as a foreigner sometimes! I can do this because I've learned the interaction. It's not that I know every verb tense and every word the cashier at a given supermarket could throw at me...hell! half the time I only understand about a fourth of what they say, but I've learned the progression of the interaction:
1. First they ask you if you have a club savings card.
2. Then they ask you if you wanna donate X# of pesos to X cause
3. Then they ask you if you're paying with cash or credit.
Etc.
So regardless of what specific words the person is using and in what grammar mode I know what happens next. My vocab hasn't improved any. I'm no more of a grammatical whiz than I was before. I just know how the interaction goes. And you know what? That's fluency! It's not the ability to understand any sentence that comes my way by applying the general rules of grammar I learned in my step by step academic acquisition, like I thought it was. NOOoooo! It's much messier and more cobbled together than that. Take solace.
P.S. I would like to amend my earlier statement that suggests you can learn a new language right where you are simply by conjuring up the sense of urgency you would have to learn it if you were in that language's country of origin surrounded by it. You can accomplish the linear portion of the language learning that way, but you'll still have to learn the interactions if you want true fluency. I hear that Rosetta Stone's approach to teaching language is just to teach the interaction rather than the grammar rules. I'm intrigued by this. I bet it works.
Now rest your eyeballs. That was a long post.
In addition to learning a language not being anything like the process of absorption it's also not a linear process either. I've studied Spanish in school now for 12+ years and up until this trip the learning process has been sort of like climbing a staircase.
First you learn the basics: greetings, numbers, present tense verbs and their accompanying pronouns. Step 1.
Then you move onto speaking in the past tense. Step 2.
After that the teach you all the exceptions to the grammar rules that your learned in steps 1 and 2 (bastards). That's step 3. Step 3 is annoying.
Then you learn how to talk about the future and deal with doubt. example: "I would do this, if this happened... or, I might do this." Step 4.
But generally you learn a verb tense or a grammar rule and you can apply that to a broad spectrum of words and situations. Then they give ya another one to throw into your bag of communicative tricks and you make that an option. You escalate the stairs building on the grammar rules you learned before until you know all the grammar rules and have practiced them enough to be able to use them comfortably and correctly "on the fly" and voilá! you're fluent.
I thought that being abroad would be the practicing and fine tuning portion of this linear process.
It ain't.
I've found being here that my fluency is patch-worked together rather than developing steadily in a solid line. I find myself fluent in certain interactions that I do often, like checking out at the grocery store or adding more money to my transit card. I can even get through it unrecognized as a foreigner sometimes! I can do this because I've learned the interaction. It's not that I know every verb tense and every word the cashier at a given supermarket could throw at me...hell! half the time I only understand about a fourth of what they say, but I've learned the progression of the interaction:
1. First they ask you if you have a club savings card.
2. Then they ask you if you wanna donate X# of pesos to X cause
3. Then they ask you if you're paying with cash or credit.
Etc.
So regardless of what specific words the person is using and in what grammar mode I know what happens next. My vocab hasn't improved any. I'm no more of a grammatical whiz than I was before. I just know how the interaction goes. And you know what? That's fluency! It's not the ability to understand any sentence that comes my way by applying the general rules of grammar I learned in my step by step academic acquisition, like I thought it was. NOOoooo! It's much messier and more cobbled together than that. Take solace.
P.S. I would like to amend my earlier statement that suggests you can learn a new language right where you are simply by conjuring up the sense of urgency you would have to learn it if you were in that language's country of origin surrounded by it. You can accomplish the linear portion of the language learning that way, but you'll still have to learn the interactions if you want true fluency. I hear that Rosetta Stone's approach to teaching language is just to teach the interaction rather than the grammar rules. I'm intrigued by this. I bet it works.
Now rest your eyeballs. That was a long post.
No comments:
Post a Comment