I always hear people talking and see people writing about trying to learn some freakin’ language or, when they’re serious, learning it.
The slogan of this blog is Learn How to Learn Spanish. Man, even I’m making this mistake. Learning a language… Ha! Officially, babies don’t learn a language, they acquire it. It’s thrown at them and they absord, that’s all they do. They don’t put effort in it, they don’t worry and are not even thinking about learning something. And they’re good. They end up speaking the language, even though it takes them several years. But again, that doesn’t matter, because they’re more fluent than most language learners will ever get.
I talk a lot about babies and language acquisition, but that’s because I think we’d make our lives easier if we’d all be “learning” a language like they do. I mean, people became fluent in a language without learning it. They understand and speak it because they acquired the darn language. They put no real effort in it, they just absorbed and had fun. Schools and colleges just destroyed that idea of absorbing a language. They think you have to learn it. Even when you try to just acquire a language, they come up will all kind of things to supplement your “learning”.
Lately I’ve been reading this blog of an ALG student. ALG stands for Automatic Language Growth, and like the name suggests it’s all about language “growing” inside you. You’re not learning it, but rather absorbing it, acquiring it, because of which it starts growing in you. Just read the blog and you’ll see how amazing the system is.
ALG pretty much works like this: a student enrolls in a course for which he has nothing to do except for attending class and listening. There’s no homework, no textbooks, no speaking. Just listening to some teachers for several hundreds of hours. And because of all that comprehensive listening (even though it’s not that comprehensive at first), the language starts growing in you.
Later on, the student learns (yes, as in studying a bit) how to read and write. Even speaking is covered, but only after more than 800 hours of listening. You see, after that many hours of listening the language has grown in you, making it an “adult”. You’ve acquired the language, but maybe not perfectly yet. There’s room for improvement, but that’s covered with more input and practice.
As this student proved, you don’t need to learn a language to actually speak it. Acquiring it is the goal, learning is just a way to do it. You see, the student in question had lived in Thailand for several years and learned some Thai, but didn’t speak it. So he decided to move from learning to acquiring it, and he succeeded.
Unfortunately, the ALG program is only available for a limited number of languages in Thailand. But we can replicate it and apply it to our own environment. Keith has been a great advocate of the TV method and has shown how far it can take you. But just as with ALG it takes diligence to keep going and to finally succeed.
I strongly believe we should stop talking about learning a language, because that implies that we use some kind of tool to learn it, and that’s not the most effective way to learn a language. Instead, just absorb and let the Spanish language grown in you. That’s how you learned your native tongue, and now that’s how you’re going to learn Spanish as well.
Further reading:
- Reasons why NOT stop studying Spanish
- Immersion is the way to go (and stop looking for excuses)
- Learning a Language Is Like Running a Marathon
Further
View full post on Spanish Only
Related posts:
]]>Last week I didn’t publish anything, because I was way too busy being depressed (yes, I know, I’m weak 
) and working on the newsletter. So far it has been going strong, and because some of you aren’t receiving the newsletter yet, I’m publishing the third edition here. I hope you sign up, simply because it’s worth it!
Further reading:
- Weekly Newsletter #4
- Spanish-Only.com Launching Weekly Newsletter
- Weekly Newsletter #6 and #7
Further
View full post on Spanish Only
Related posts:
]]>It seems popular to think that reading out loud it a good way to get better at certain things. Things like fluency, pronunciation, and don’t forget that the student is getting some more input. I haven’t seen many bloggers saying that reading out loud is a good idea, but many teachers think it is. After all, it sounds good. Right?
As someone who studies a foreign language, linguistics, and didactics, I find these ideas extremely interesting. I’m one of those people who always believed that reading out loud in a foreign language is a good idea, especially when there’s a teacher to correct those nasty pronunciation errors. But then I read a book about modern foreign languages and how we teach them by the Dutch linguist Erik Kwakernaak.
Kwakernaak is one of the few people who don’t say people learn because of language teachers, but despite those annoying people that tell us what to say or what to do. Only because of saying that I think he’s cool, but he had some other cool things to say. One of those being about reading out loud.
First I want to get something straight: I’ve used reading out loud to become better at… reading out loud. I even dare to say that it somewhat helped me at speaking faster because of reading some tongue twisters, but I’m not sure how much it helped me with my pronunciation. After all, there wasn’t someone to correct me and I already had a pretty good pronunciation because of all that listening I did before.
Kwakernaak rightfully says that we can only pay attention to one thing at a time. If we read something out loud, we either concentrate on the content, or concentrate on our pronunciation. The first thing is actually a bad thing, as it can cause us to get a bad accent. The latter isn’t as bad as the former, but it still doesn’t guard you from getting a messed up pronunciation, and it still doesn’t prove to be a good way to get some more input. At its best reading out loud is a good way to get better at reading out loud. It’s possible that you need that skill, but not very likely.
My advice is to first listen a lot to get an idea of what you should sound like. I’ve said this countless times, so I guess that’s something you already know. To get a better pronunciation reading out loud is an option, but certainly not the best. I’m still not sure what the best method is, but practicing individual sounds and putting them in words and sentences when I spoke to actual people helped me the most. Now, it’s not always possible to find something to talk to that actually understands you, but recording yourself is an option.
So, should you read out loud? Only if that’s a skill you want to master. If you want to get more input, you better watch some more TV or read a good book. If you want to gain fluency, you listen and speak. If you want to get a better pronunciation, you listen to yourself, correct yourself and ask people for corrections. In all those cases reading out loud is not the way to go.
Still, I’m curious: do you use reading out loud to become better at something? If so, what do you use if for, and is it helping you?
Further reading:
- How to Read Spanish
- Don’t Worry Too Much About Your Accent
- How to treat the rules: read about them but don’t learn them
Further
View full post on Spanish Only
Related posts:
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]]>Don’t worry, I’m still here. A bit less active, but still here. The newsletter (which I post ridiculously late) should explain the most important things. Long story short: I need 30 hours a day, but only have 24 
. This weekend will be the tenth newsletter, and today or tomorrow I’ll post an article on the blog.
Further reading:
- Weekly Newsletter #4
- Weekly Newsletter #6 and #7
- Weekly Newsletter #3
Further
View full post on Spanish Only
Related posts:
]]>Starting this week, the newsletter will be synced. That means that the day I’m sending out the e-mail, it will also appear on the blog. I’ve noticed that the newsletter is a good way to start discussions, so I want to have feedback as fast as possible after sending it out.
Here are both newsletter number 6 and 7.
Newsletter #6
Newsletter #7
Further reading:
- Weekly Newsletter #4
- Spanish-Only.com Launching Weekly Newsletter
- Weekly Newsletter #3
Further
View full post on Spanish Only
Related posts:
]]>Further reading:
- Weekly Newsletter #3
- Weekly Newsletter #4
- Weekly Newsletter #5
Further
View full post on Spanish Only
Related posts:
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In the past I’ve written quite some posts about dictionaries, why they’re useful, how I use them to collect sentences, and what to look for in a good dictionary. So maybe you think I’m a big fan of dictionaries and that I always have one near to look something up. Truth is, I’m not a fan, I don’t use them a lot, and I think they’re not important at all. Let me explain you why.
Why I’m not a fan of dictionaries
Paper dictionaries are often big and heavy, which means that you can’t carry them around if you want to. When I have a writing exam I almost break my back because I have to carry a bag, containing several heavy dictionaries.
Electronic dictionaries are a better solution, but not accepted at my college to use in exams. When used for personal use, electronic (let it be on the internet, a computer program or a physical electronic device) dictionaries are the way to go. And still they’re not ideal, because they often don’t contain slang and most example sentences are just ridiculous and not really natural language.
Last but not least: bilingual dictionaries make you lazy and keep you translating stuff instead of thinking in concepts, and especially keep you from switching over to a monolingual environment.
Why I don’t use dictionaries
Time. In the time I’m looking up a specific word or expression, I already lost focus for the thing I was doing. That’s why I only use a dictionary when I’m writing something and can’t come up with a word in Spanish. Only then I’ll look up the English or Dutch word that comes close to the word I had in mind, and will often find the word I’m looking for.
However, when looking for that word, I find more Spanish words with more or less the same meaning, but not quite. Only because I speak Spanish well I’m able to notice the nuance between words. A beginner can’t, and will often choose the wrong word, burning this wrong choice in his brain.
That’s why I don’t use a dictionary when being a beginner in a language. That’s why I just get input and don’t bother if I don’t understand something; I have no reference to see if something is correct or not. Chances are I’m learning something that in theory is correct, but in practice makes no sense at all. I can look up but, and find mas and pero, only to find out waaaaay later that mas is a word used in literature and pero is used when speaking or in less formal writing. A beginner doesn’t know that, I do.
Why dictionaries aren’t important
By now I hope you see dictionaries can actually be an enemy instead of a friend you always thought they were. But why aren’t they important? We’ve already seen that they’re useful in some cases, but now I’m saying they’re not important?
Everything you can learn from a good dictionary, you can learn from getting immersed in the language. A kid doesn’t know how to read, and still he acquires new vocabulary. Every day we learn new words in our native language, and most time that happens verbally or while reading the paper or a book. No dictionary to save us here, and still we seem to do fine. Weird, huh? It’s just how our brain works.
Dictionaries aren’t important, but teachers and other people like to let us believe that they are. Of course they have their place, but you shouldn’t give them more credit than they deserve. They’re bundled dead trees, who cares.
They’re expensive, keep you translating stuff, force you to think about words, take up time, take up room in your bag, are heavy, unnatural at times, unclear about what word to use, want to let you believe they’re important, aren’t important, smell weird, keep you from getting some more input, are incomplete, often lack example sentences, often lack natural language, prevent you from using real language, let you think everything is translatable, and do thousands of other things wrong.
A good dictionary has its place, can serve you well at times, but should never be considered important or indispensable.
Photo by machimon
Further reading:
- What Spanish Dictionary to Use?
- Online EsPasa dictionary for free
- What Is The Most Important Part Of a Language?
Further
View full post on Spanish Only
Related posts:
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After publishing my fifth newsletter, readers David and アカン (Akan) asked me how I made the transition from input mode to output mode, and how I’m able to understand specialized vocabulary (for example while watching the news). In the article in the newsletter in question, I talked about how far audio-based immersion can take you and what you should do after you hit a certain point.
Some people like to believe that audio-based input is all you need, and that you’re as fluent as in your native language after getting enough hours of input. Although listening a lot will make you fluent indeed, it won’t give you adult-like abilities in your target language. More is needed, like polishing your grammar and getting a bigger (specialized) vocabulary.
David asked me how I transitioned from input mode to output mode, because my Spanish was so “amazing”. I can’t really judge how good my Spanish is, as I simply imitate native speakers I know. But it seems to sound very natural. The truth is that at first (when I started learning Spanish) I wasn’t in input mode at all. Everything I did was geared towards producing Spanish, as I thought that speaking would actually improve my Spanish.
The result was a messed up accent, and a messed up grammar. It wasn’t until I discovered the Input Hypothesis that I shut up and started to get some serious input. I don’t know if this proves that a bad accent can actually be fixed by listening a lot, but it helped me. Still, I continued to speak Spanish on a daily basis at college, while listening as much as I could. The only “silent period” I had was during the summer, when I had time to shut up for over 6 weeks and get audio-based input 10 to 15 hours a day.
About a year later I had my second semi-silent period when I was in Spain for an internship. My internship was only part time and I would sit in my apartment for the rest of the day, watching episode after episode of Lost, Friends, etc. I would also study some grammar (as I already was fluent in Spanish) to get rid of the small mistakes in my Spanish, and would add the example sentences from the grammar book to Anki.
However, speaking actually helped me there, and during my time in Spain the trasition was pretty smooth. At first I was the silent guy at work, only speaking when it was really necessary. Then co-workers started to talk to me and I had to respond. Still, my accent wasn’t good and some new people I met weren’t afraid to tell me my accent sucked, or at least that it wasn’t natural. So what they did was telling me exactly the sounds I had trouble with, after which I’d practice at home to nail down the correct sounds. Just like I learned how to roll my R, I’d simply put the new sounds to practice, which helped me a lot.
Anyway, I believe I had to do this because my accent was already messed up. There are enough reports that prove that having a solid silent period has a natural and native accent and intonation as result. I have to see that myself while I’m learning French on my own, but I believe the massive input combined with the gradual transition from being a shy idiot to an outgoing guy (in Spanish) definitely helped.
Now アカン (Akan)’s question. How am I able to understand (for example) the news in Spanish? First of all, because the news was/is part of my immersion environment. Also, specialized vocabulary not only appears in a news broadcast, but also in the newspaper. I love reading El País, so specialized vocabulary I pick up from reading the articles are also useful when I’m watching a news broadcast.
Still, Spanish is a pretty amazing and logical language when it comes to coming up with names for things and persons. In English (and Dutch) we like to invent seperate words for everything we can think of. In Spanish they just use compound words using the word de.
Using the preposition de it’s very easy to come up with new words, so Spanish speakers do it all the time. It also makes it easy to understand a compund word. Traje de gala is a evening dress (a dress you wear to a gala) and traje de novia is a wedding dress (a dress your fiancee wears). Of course this is an extremely simplistic example, but it is pretty much how the Spanish language works.
Nevertheless, you need to expand your immersion environment. Watching Friends or The Office dubbed in Spanish leaves you with a great sense of humor, but it will also limit the vocabulary you understand and can use. Adding some news broadcasts, newspapers, fiction and non-fiction to the mix does wonders and will greatly improve your understanding of most things. Yes, you won’t understand quantum mechanics in Spanish if you don’t study it, but isn’t that also the case in your native language?
I always say: you can’t produce what you didn’t input first. This is also true for input: you can’t understand something you didn’t hear/read before (repeatedly). I can guess what traje de baño means, but not until I see an advertisement for a swimsuit or hear people talking about it while seeing a swimsuit I can be sure.
Maybe my answer to Akan’s question is a bit vague, but what I’m trying to say is: you can only understand the news in Spanish if you’ve watched it a lot. You can only understand a Spanish newspaper if you’ve read many Spanish newspapers. You can only understand a Spanish comedy if you’ve watched loads of them.
There is no such thing as a magic pill or magic formula that enables you to understand everything in Spanish that crosses your path. It takes input, both in audio and written form. That’s how I learned to understand the things that interest me in Spanish. That’s how natives learned about things that interest them. If something doesn’t interest you and you don’t get input regarding that subject, you probably won’t understand a paper about it when it uses specialized vocabulary. However, the same counts for a paper on that subject in your native language. Does that mean that we’re not fluent? No, it only means that we don’t think it’s important to spend time on that subject.
I’m fluent in Dutch because it’s my native language and because I’ve been using it on a daily basis for the last 20+ years. Still, I won’t understand a magazine about model trains, simply because it’s not something I enjoy reading about. I can’t explain role playing games like World of Warcraft in Dutch either, because I lack the Dutch vocabulary to do so. Ask me about World of Warcraft in English or Spanish, and I can hold a three hours conversation about it in those languages. It’s because I played the game in both English and Spanish, simple as that.
To recap this long-ass article and the questions David and Akan asked me:
How did I make the transition from input mode to output mode?
It went gradual, while getting a healthy dosis of input every day during my transition from input-only mode to output mode.
How am I able to understand specialized language in Spanish?
Simply because I studied the subject (even the role playing thing), got a shitload of specialized input, used it in conversations and got some more input. That’s the key, nothing else.
Further reading:
- Understanding Everything Shouldn’t Be Your Goal
- Have a native accent? Good!
- Intentions for Spanish in 2009
Further
View full post on Spanish Only
Related posts:
]]>From now on I’ll publish the newsletter of the week before on Spanish-Only.com. Some readers said that they wanted to read the newsletter, but didn’t want to subscribe because they already get a huge amount of e-mails every day. But to give the subscribers a small “advantage” I’ll only publish the newsletter of the week before.
Here’s neletter number 4. Next week I’ll publish newsletter number 5 (which I sent out yesterday).
Comments about the newsletter? Post them here!
Further reading:
- Spanish-Only.com Launching Weekly Newsletter
- Newsletter #3
- Bye Bye Forum!
Further
View full post on Spanish Only
Related posts:
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