REsisting the temptation

A short blog today, something that I will continue next time: there are two mires that truly exist for language learning: first, getting spread too thin and, second, not seeing a way out of the plateau that you are in.

Once you learn enough languages, your experience will help you to begin to pick new languages apart analytically, even as you are listening to them for the first time. The problem here is that you must learn to resist the urge to spread yourself too thin. It can become all too tempting to start to study another language, even when you haven't finished the previous one that you were working on. You have to develop the mental fortitude to continue with your primary language of study.

I would, thus, strongly advise against taking on more than one and, at most, two languages at a time.

The more you spread your focus, the slower your progress will go in any of the languages that you are studying, and you may stop making real progress in your main language(s) all together – if you're not careful. So, in other words, it will be better to focus on one or two languages at a time than any more than that, solely because you should get a language to a good comfortable level where you have covered/assimilated most of the grammar and have a good foundation in the core vocabulary of the language, so that you then just need to slowly creep your way upwards to ever higher plateaus.

Next time, I'm going to go into this in greater detail and I will let you in on some good secrets as to how to get out of these mires than can prove surprisingly formidable opponents to your language mastery.

Why would I want to look at rice recipes?!

So, for those of you that have checked out my post on how Brazilians make rice, (for those of you that haven’t, here’s the link: Click here to learn how to make rice like a Brazilian) you may be wondering how that article fits into the overall corpus of this website. I will put it quite simply, if I were not able to understand Portuguese, then it would have been quite difficult indeed for me to ever even have accessed that recipe to begin with, let alone understand it. I probably never would have thought about this topic of different ways to cook rice other than what I grew up with. Thus, my world is rendered larger, more diverse just because I am able to access a different perspective on rice cooking. Maybe it will become my favorite way to eat rice, who knows! I will say that purple rice from Taiwan is one of my favorite ways to eat rice. I would never have known that if I weren't able to speak Mandarin. (purple rice article coming soon -- It's delicious!) 

Monolingual speakers truly constrict their worldview by limiting themselves to only one language. Think about it like this: native speakers of a language other than English. If they don't ever learn English or don't learn English well – as most learners of a foreign language unfortunately are wont to do – then they may very well never gain access to the incredible plethora of books and media that are available in English. English has more books, articles, and media written or translated to it than any other language, but that's not to discount the great wealth of resources that other languages have and that never get translated to English. Furthermore, translations are useful, but they are certainly not a replacement for understanding the beauty and logic of the work as rendered in its original language.

 Additionally, the crux of the issue for you language learners out there is the fact that you need to stay cognizant of the fact that learning all the grammar and searching out speaking practice is a great basis, but you need to seek out other avenues to expand your exposure to the language – reading is a great way to do that. Even if it is just reading recipes, you are still expanding your ability to communicate in the target language. Hopefully, you enjoy the experience and the exposure to another culture’s viewpoint on whatever the topic may be, as well. This exposure to other viewpoints is one of the primary goals of higher education and I highly recommend that you take listening to and seriously considering alternative viewpoints, even if they are critical of you or your country. Who knows, you may gain a better understanding of the way the world actually is. There are stories of many a person going to doctor after doctor in the US, never finding a solution to their problem, then going to a doctor in China, and having their problem finally cured. Keep your eyes and mind open and you will learn things that you never knew. It may help you to remember that even if a culture seems like it has no value to you, every culture has to have at least one thing positive about it, maybe you aren't looking hard enough. Different cultures have different emphases that they place, but most are united by some key foci, such as on health, just because they have a different perspective on said foci doesn't mean that their perspective doesn't have logic behind it, and it also doesn't mean that it isn't worth consideration. The world is not black and white, but rather shades of grey. 

There are other countries in the world, and just as their peoples have different cultures from one another do they have differing viewpoints on a plethora of issues. Language is your primary key to accessing this. Also, keep in mind that there are other countries that speak your target language other than the largest or most important globally or economically. So, for example, do remember that just because Angola is smaller, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t possess viewpoints, points of cultural interest, etc. that could be just as or more important than a country like Brazil. Developed country or not, I hope that you will endeavor to expand your knowledge of the world and its cultures so that you can live a fuller, more diverse life. Keep challenging yourself, even if it’s just with a recipe, article or short paragraph , take what you can from it, make flashcards using an SRS program out of what you take away from it, study, and attempt to use the vocabulary so that it becomes not only a part of your passive vocabulary, but part of your active vocabulary as well. I want to put particular emphasis on the last segment of that sentence, for it is your active vocabulary that most expands your communicative ability. Yes, passive vocabulary allows you to understand, and circumlocuting is a useful tool for every language learner, but your ultimate goal should be the expansion of your active vocabulary.

Stay well and healthy, and keep learning,

Evren

A note on the empirical value of my preparation for the Brazilian rice post:

While preparing for the Brazilian rice recipe post, I read a number of recipes, collated their ingredients, and I watched videos. Put another way, I reviewed material, looked up words that I didn’t know, then read through more material using that new vocabulary, and then watched and listened to videos of Brazilians demonstrating how they cook rice. As a result, I not only expanded my passive vocabulary and practiced my recognition of said passive vocabulary, but I improved upon my listening ability as well.