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Fluency,Target Level,Forgetting/Maintenan | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| futurianus Senior Member Korea, South starlightonclou Joined 5011 days ago 125 posts - 234 votes  Speaks: Korean* | Message 1 of 2 30 September 2013 at 9:41am | IP Logged |
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Fluency, Target Level, Forgetting/Maintenance
It was just about three years ago that I began more seriously and systematically reorganizing my amateurish experiences with different languages and cultures, and set on the course to maximize my effort to learn languages. After adjusting to a more sedantic hectic life for about two years, I finally decided to set out on a sail around the world again, this time to see and experience the interior world of different cultures and nations by immersing myself in their languages and cultural heritages right from inside my room. The things that had decisively made this possible were digital technologies and fast expanding internet. At first I browsed through the relevant websites to gather as much relevant information as possible and lay the foundation for my new enterprise. I came upon this site and found other language learners' enthusiasm and sharing of their experiences and insights encouraging and helpful. I had intended to only read and get information, but somehow had ended up writing things here, at first a bit here and there, and then later a lot more than originally intended. As someone who did not major in languages or language related fields and did not have any aspiration to pursue professional career in those fields, and as someone who has seriously dedicated his life to pursue other path, I use to think that someone who is not making a living in language related field and who is not a student or a retiree, but who invests much time learning languages is someone who has no better things to do with his life. It was only later in life when I was given the opportunity to visit and see the larger world for myself, that I became aware of the importance of learning local languages in order to understand the local people and their culture and became motivated to spend time and effort to learn their languages. What I am writing is not prescriptive and is not advocating that others should do as I do. I am only describing my own experiences and guidelines that I had followed for myself only, which are not perfect, complete and fixed yet, but in the process of change and growth. During my more nomadic life period when I invested time and effort to learn languages in lieu with my travels and stays in foreign lands(for its brief description, see here What is an effective immersion method?), I did so in most cases only during the time I was within the area I was visiting or staying for a long term. Often I could not spend time to learn the language before and after visiting the country due to time constraint. I also did not feel any need to do so. My main purpose in learning the languages was not to attain fluency in them. I had no use for them in my professional life or my livelihood. I had no need for any credentials or certification in languages at all. I did not even know anything about A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2 scales and even if I knew I would not have even felt any need to evaluate my level or to target myself to achieve any one of those levels. My primary concern was to become functional in the language for the purpose of travel or staying as soon as possible, and to immerse myself within the cultural milieu of the place and experience the people and their culture from the inside perspective as much as possible. I also instinctively felt that it would not be as effective to learn a language outside of immersion situation, that it was not a wise use of time for me given my situation. I also did not care at all about forgetting the languages I learned and I never felt that I just wasted my energy and time over them, as I have already satisfied my main purpose for learning them while I was within the country. I also felt that I could learn the language again and increase my functionality in it, should I ever visit the place again. I had a need to use them there and I had used them, though at a limited level. I no longer needed them after I left the place. Why should I invest my time and energy for something for which I no longer has an actual need? At present more sedentary period in my life, my orientation and goal for languages have changed from those of more nomadic period in my life. As I am focusing more on acquiring language skills right from home, I have imbued more meaning and importance to the level to be attained. During the nomadic period, I could have gotten by a simple A1 to B1 level. The higher the level, the better the quality of experiences, of course, but even A1 level also made a huge difference in what and how I was experiencing the place. Now to experience and travel through the cultural landscape of certain regions or countries without actually going there requires one to access and digest their cultural heritage in many other forms, which require higher level of functionality in their languages. My primary target level for passive language acquisition is listening and understanding the news broadcast and public discussions in the target language at about 70-99% of comprehension, depending on the language. Not reading their high literature, not understanding their comedies with all the finer intricacies in the twist of meanings and punchlines. If I could access those easily, that is fine and I would be happy to be able to do so. But they are not my primary target levels. I feel that if I could reach the level where I could understand much or most of their news broadcasts and discussions with ease, I could access most of the informations about their politics, economy, society, history and science in their language and be able to get a better sense of the broader picture of their traditions and present situation. During travels, verbal production is often far more important and necessary skill than listening skill. My target level for active language production now is not as high as the passive one. If I could carry on a simple conversation with native speaker on simple topics, I would be satisfied. When it comes to talking ability, what I am aiming is laying a foundation, from which I can build on when the need to improve it should force itself on me later. I am convinced that a strong foundation in listening and vocabulary will enable me to quickly improve my speaking ability at a later time. I am quite accustomed to start speaking right away from the very start, as soon as I set my foot in a new land and I have carried this habit into my sedentary immersive approach. I do feel that for me talking generates much stronger stimulus to my brain-heart nervous system to generate new nerve cells. However, homeground sedentary situation has brought about the change in the situation where there is less need for speaking and more need for listening and vocabulary acquisition than that of the nomadic immersive situation. Should the opportunity be given, I would like to be able to deliver lectures and discuss on various issues in the target languages. This is another motivation for me to not neglect verbal production aspect too much. I have different target level goals for different languages based on my personal preference and estimation of how much I might need to function in them. My language learning style and method is based strongly upon immersive language learning, which puts heavy emphasis on the process rather than the end, on the usage and experience in the 'now' than the preparation and experience in the 'future'. (for its description, see here Addendum: Detachment from the Goals and Attachment to the Process). I would like to balance and tint my target level goals with the enjoyment of the growing experience in the languages and cultures in the 'now' and 'here'. I find that it helps me greatly to maintain my interest and motivation for spending time in and with the language, makes it satisfying and fulfilling to do so everyday, except those occasions when I am forced to skip my session times such as when I have to make a short business trip or take time to write things here. I am greatly grateful for this gift of discovering the wonderful joy of assimilating new languages and cultures. I regard the collective organized education system with much suspect as to its effectiveness and healthiness. One main reason for that is due to its grading system which sets certain unilateral standard and forces all students to unhealthily compete with others according to too simplified game rules, which do not address adequately the unique individuality and creativity of the individuals and the complex and multidimensional nature of knowlege and skill acquisition of the present day. I suspect that much discussions on the fluency could have been tainted by the organizational nature of human society which is constrained to grade abilities and stress the end results over the natural and healthy process of stimulating innate curiosity and providing ways to satisfy it. The system must roll on and I must respect the stress put on the fluency and its grading system set by the collectivity. One cannot escape the reality and collective nature of the system that has created and nurtured us, though it also requires those who stand out of them for it to reform and grow. But in the end, I would like to be out of the system, though I do recognize and accept that I am also of the system and in the system. A factor that greatly allows me to stand out of the system could be that I am not a public performer of my language abilities or professional whose status or livelihood is dependant on my level of performance. I regard myself as amateurish and nonprofessional. It also seems that my focus and approach to the issue of fluency, required target level and forgetting or maintenance exigency are a bit of different nature than that of the general mood of this forum, though I find some who seem to have similar orientation and attitude towards them as me. These issues are indeed very important issues for me and all language learners. I have described my own experiences and perspectives on them, not prescriptively but only descriptively as something that has been undergoing changes with the changes in my circumstances. I want to live quitely and happily in my closed private world with my languages. Should I later on need to give lectures to the native speakers and discuss things with them in their native languages, I may push myself to attain higher level of fluency for that language, should I still not feel adequate for those purposes, to not embarrass myself too much in public and to be able to deliver greater value to the audience or discussion partners. At present, however, I do not feel much need for thinking too seriously about such issues, as encountering and using these languages in a meaningful way is more important to me now and I can say that I am doing so almost everyday irregardless of whatever my level of proficiency might be at according to the grading system of the collectivity. .... .... Edited by futurianus on 03 October 2013 at 3:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| futurianus Senior Member Korea, South starlightonclou Joined 5011 days ago 125 posts - 234 votes Speaks: Korean* | Message 2 of 2 01 October 2013 at 1:48pm | IP Logged |
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Some in the system might try to pull me back into the system and tell me that I am very naive and must accept the objective values of the system.
I am in the system and also do accept the values of the system. Just because I was in the system and functioned in it and found that it did not give me what I had wanted in the way that met my needs, I could understand more clearly the values that I have discovered and instilled into me. I am also of another system, a larger one than the small system that I was familiar with. It can be said that the true system is not limited, but just that our own understanding of the system is limited. When we change the way we think, we can undergo a transformation and develop new ways of thinking and doing things. As with all things in life, it takes time for any worthwhile thing to grow and become a significant factor that forms who we are and shape our destiny. Looking back, I could not have understood certain things had I not had accumulated certain basis and experiences with languages. I think I am at a stage and age in life where certain things have been settled down and I became comfortable in doing things in certain ways. But I want to keep myself open to new things, to change and growth. Through formal education, I had formally studied six languages, some better and some just so-and-so. Languages were not the main thrust of my education, but always were secondary areas of knowledge and skill development. I did not acquire working ability in most of the languages through school classes, but it gave me a good foundation in understanding different languages, their structures and contents. Before finishing my formal education and right after for a while, in all for about two or three years I had an opportunity to work as a translator and interpreter. It was something I did when I was young during a transitional time in my life, from school to society. I translated one book, numerous magazine articles, documents in various fields both civic and governmental, and did interpretation in various social and business situations, including working out a thick legal contract for a multibillion dollar business negotiation and transaction. I have done simultaneous interpretation for public speeches over one hundred times during this period. Those working in professional capacity as an interpreter would understand the meaning of what I have described above. I was functioning at a very high level, that only very few topnotch interpreters could do or were offered to do. I had had taken several graduate level courses in cultural anthropology, including cross-cultural communication, though my specialty is not in anthropology, which had helped me greatly with translating and interpreting work and later in life, with my travels and language acquisition. Of course, my training and career objective was not in the field of languages. Thus I dropped the work as soon as I began to establish myself. Later I also employed a number of interpreters and trained them to be more effective in their work. My intensive experience with translation and interpretation further strengthened my understanding of the nature and function of intercultural and interlinguistic communication. I had performed pretty good in the system as a student, translator and interpreter. Later on, I had an opportunity to set the rules of the system as one of the operators of the system, which I did not carry out.... .... .... It might be paradoxical, but I find myself growing in fluency by giving up fluency, that I gain by letting it go. Something of a paradigm shift, a dimensional change in thinking.... Let me stop. Edited by futurianus on 01 October 2013 at 11:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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