|
 |
How do you people cram in so many? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6264 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 57 of 73 03 September 2009 at 12:11am | IP Logged |
|
I don't know if he was able to use it for languages, but Solomon Shereshevsky was noted for an incredibly powerful memory and for synesthesia.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5559 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 58 of 73 03 September 2009 at 1:55am | IP Logged |
|
I never knew so many of my fellow language-lovers were also fellow synesthetes. Go
figure. Perhaps there is something about synesthesia that draws us to languages? I don't know. In any case, it most certainly is a powerful tool for learning other languages. Without even trying or thinking about it, I unconsciously transferred all my letter-color associations to the Cyrillic alphabet when I was learning Russian. I find it difficult, for example, to confuse the Roman letter "P" with the identical-looking Cyrillic letter, since the Roman letter appears green to me whereas the Cyrillic one is purple like a Roman "R". I would be interested to hear how others' synesthesia adapted (or didn't adapt) to foreign orthographies. Funny I should stumble across this topic today. Hardly ever is my attention drawn to my synesthesia. It is for the most part just a passive experience of my daily life that I don't discuss with others because few people "get" that the letter A is red and the number 9 is purple to me; it just sounds silly to them. But just yesterday I was a participant in a study about synesthesia being done by a psychologist on the other side of the country (ah, the wonders of the Intertubes!) Edited by Levi on 03 September 2009 at 1:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| JoeMcC Pentaglot Newbie United States joe185.wordpress.com Joined 5556 days ago 17 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, Irish, Spanish, Mandarin, French Studies: Scottish Gaelic, German, Catalan, Breton | Message 59 of 73 03 September 2009 at 5:04am | IP Logged |
|
I think it's remarkable how much discussion was provoked by synesthesia. I had no idea it was so common. I had read about it in relation to language-learning, math, etc. in 'On a Blue Day' by Daniel Tammet. Many of you have probably read it or seen the documentary. If you haven't, it's an interesting read. Tammet seems a very gifted language learner and I envy him.
On the original topic, I know someone who studies an ungodly number of languages. He was raised in a trilingual family (Russian, French, English from his translator mother) in a time and place where Franco-Provencal was the language of the streets and schoolyard, so he had four languages growing up. Today, he alternates his favorite languages (all 'minor' ones) on a weekly basis when he writes in his diary. My best language is one of them, so I have some ability to size up his abilities--fluent, understands well (but not in the case of my favorite dialect), has a very scholarly knowledge of the grammar. I have studied two of the others with him. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dragonflyy Newbie United States Joined 5553 days ago 7 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* | Message 60 of 73 03 September 2009 at 7:52pm | IP Logged |
|
Interesting thread about synesthesia. Fascinating stuff, thanks guys for sharing. I also had no idea it was this common.
I don't have synesthesia, but I do actively use my imagination to make similar associations when I learn new vocabulary. For me, the problem with associating foreign words with native words, is that the native word always feels more dominate and important. So sometimes that interferes. Instead I'll try to visualize an object, color, sound, place, sensation, etc. Anything I can relate to the word and make a connection... So for example, the word for "red" in Japanese. I'd visualize something like a glass of red wine. Or an apple. Or a red flower. Eventually the word 赤 just started to sound red... just as much as the word "red" in English does. Also, I use the kanji itself as a mnemonic. Often they have shapes that just look like the word should sound... For more complicated concepts having to do with feelings or emotions, I picture myself in a scene or recall a memory where I'm feeling that word. There's no set system or anything like that, and it's different for every word. Sometimes I'll recall an instance where a native speaker used the word- especially if it was a character in a movie or TV program I liked. Or in a song. Edited by dragonflyy on 03 September 2009 at 7:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| gbarv Groupie Cocos (Keeling) Islands Joined 5629 days ago 49 posts - 60 votes | Message 61 of 73 04 September 2009 at 2:22pm | IP Logged |
|
Mmmm... For the record Luca and Stu Jay are also synesthesic.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6256 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 62 of 73 04 September 2009 at 6:49pm | IP Logged |
|
I wonder how common synesthesia really is. It seems when it's brought up on other forums I visit, lots of people there also have it. Maybe it just seems rare because people don't talk about it much?
I also wonder how many people have the same associations(like red for the letter "a", I think my sister's "a" is red too) As for other writing systems, the associations from the latin alphabet just get transferred to the characters/letter that have a similar sound. The Japanese character for the sound "ka" か has the same color(s) as "ka". Chinese characters didn't really have any color for a long time, probably due the the complexity and lack of consistent readings. But now I think some other them are gaining color... 女(woman) is light purple, very feminine(but unrelated to the pronunciation), while 大(big) just seems to be gaining the color of "tai", a common reading. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Gray Parrot Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5588 days ago 41 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Portuguese | Message 63 of 73 05 September 2009 at 11:18pm | IP Logged |
|
To answer the original question; if you keep learning you will find it becomes easier to learn new languages. The
same with any skill. The more you do, the more you can do. So don't give up. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lingua Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5568 days ago 186 posts - 319 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 64 of 73 06 September 2009 at 12:09am | IP Logged |
|
If you equate knowing a language with knowing the basic grammar and 1000, 2000, or whatever number of words, then cramming in so many is not hard. I have met many people who have done this and claimed to be able to speak a language. However when it actually came to being able to speak it, well, not really.
1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
