Another week of language learning, sort of...
The Linguist is always talking about exposure to content, and that's what I've been doing with my time the last couple weeks. And it does help. I am now thinking in Spanish more and more easily. I confess that I have not been in any way systematizing or organizing either my study, or my learning, or my review. But just being exposed to content and being exposed to content can really help.
I'm working on another project for the website - or, rather, thinking about working on one. It runs at least halfway contrary to what I've written above, but I'm beginning to think the key to language learning, above all, is to let it sneak up on you when your brain isn't looking so that you can learn the language, instead of getting caught up in learning about it. The new project takes a step or two in that direction. But that's for another day.
Back to the main subject: While I have done very little language study lately, I've been living in Spanish 2-3 hours a day. On the computer and in the car stereo, I've got Laura Pausini playing pretty much constantly. And whenever I have a spare moment, I've got reading from El Poder del Ahora, mentioned earlier. So far, I have just finished Chapter 3, bringing me to page 65 (plus 25 or so introductory pages). Around 20 pages this week read.
While I find Tolle interesting, I have a sense that there might be things to do with Spanish other than evangelizing for a neo-Buddhist mini-movement. To that end, I've been looking for business or economics books in Spanish. Not because I plan to do business, but because economics and business sooner or later point to an awful lot of the things people do and think about. Granted, we do not dream about cash-flow, ROI or six sigma, but the basic ideas of growth, achievement and exchange that these quantify or represent get to the heart of how we live and work. What I would most like to find is, say, an MBA for Dummies book in Spanish. For now, all I've found if Friedman's The World is Flat, which looked as tedious in Spanish as it was in English, and Freakonomics, which was interesting. I got Freakonomics and have read the first section of the Introduction (4 pages).
Wrap-up and advice: The above two paragraphs are just my own thoughts, notes, history or whatever. They're what I like on other people's language blogs, even more than their good advice, because it's nice to know you're in the same boat with other learners. So one bit of advice is to frequent the blogs and anything else you can find that helps you feel like you're involved in something special and worth being involved in. The second is to get your language learning whenever, wherever, however you can. In some cases, the challenge is finding good materials, good explanations, good whatever. But in other cases, the biggest obstacle is finding something that keeps you tuned in. So remembering that there's no one right method, no single best way to learn, and that no method is useful if you're not using it at the moment, I'd suggest that if you're at the point where the beginner's stuff is boring, the review courses wear you out, etc, try living with the language in your life, whether you understand or not.
Picking up from where I've been reading, do not obsess about a past where you did not study enough, or a future where you'll know your language. Be careful in your goal setting that you do not think about what you'll learn tomorrow. But stay focused in doing what seems right for today, knowing that the future is only a later now whose essence will be set by what you do with the present moment and all the present moments that follow, not by planning, but by living.
I'm working on another project for the website - or, rather, thinking about working on one. It runs at least halfway contrary to what I've written above, but I'm beginning to think the key to language learning, above all, is to let it sneak up on you when your brain isn't looking so that you can learn the language, instead of getting caught up in learning about it. The new project takes a step or two in that direction. But that's for another day.
Back to the main subject: While I have done very little language study lately, I've been living in Spanish 2-3 hours a day. On the computer and in the car stereo, I've got Laura Pausini playing pretty much constantly. And whenever I have a spare moment, I've got reading from El Poder del Ahora, mentioned earlier. So far, I have just finished Chapter 3, bringing me to page 65 (plus 25 or so introductory pages). Around 20 pages this week read.
While I find Tolle interesting, I have a sense that there might be things to do with Spanish other than evangelizing for a neo-Buddhist mini-movement. To that end, I've been looking for business or economics books in Spanish. Not because I plan to do business, but because economics and business sooner or later point to an awful lot of the things people do and think about. Granted, we do not dream about cash-flow, ROI or six sigma, but the basic ideas of growth, achievement and exchange that these quantify or represent get to the heart of how we live and work. What I would most like to find is, say, an MBA for Dummies book in Spanish. For now, all I've found if Friedman's The World is Flat, which looked as tedious in Spanish as it was in English, and Freakonomics, which was interesting. I got Freakonomics and have read the first section of the Introduction (4 pages).
Wrap-up and advice: The above two paragraphs are just my own thoughts, notes, history or whatever. They're what I like on other people's language blogs, even more than their good advice, because it's nice to know you're in the same boat with other learners. So one bit of advice is to frequent the blogs and anything else you can find that helps you feel like you're involved in something special and worth being involved in. The second is to get your language learning whenever, wherever, however you can. In some cases, the challenge is finding good materials, good explanations, good whatever. But in other cases, the biggest obstacle is finding something that keeps you tuned in. So remembering that there's no one right method, no single best way to learn, and that no method is useful if you're not using it at the moment, I'd suggest that if you're at the point where the beginner's stuff is boring, the review courses wear you out, etc, try living with the language in your life, whether you understand or not.
Picking up from where I've been reading, do not obsess about a past where you did not study enough, or a future where you'll know your language. Be careful in your goal setting that you do not think about what you'll learn tomorrow. But stay focused in doing what seems right for today, knowing that the future is only a later now whose essence will be set by what you do with the present moment and all the present moments that follow, not by planning, but by living.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home