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Getting the gist is good enough | ||
Tags: Epiphany | Comprehension/understanding | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 9 of 32 11 October 2012 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It rarely clicks, in my view. Mostly the process whereby a foreign language goes from being mostly gibberish, with perhaps a few comprehensible words or phrases, to being mostly comprehensible with a few incomprehensible words is so gradual that you can't identify a moment where it clicks.
To add a few further comments - I have sometimes been conscious rather suddenly of being able to do something I couldn't do before. With Turkish, I recall reading a leaflet in that language and explaining the contents to someone else, then suddenly realising that I had not had to consult the pocket Turkish-English dictionary I habitually carried. For perhaps the first time, I had been able to read a text without encountering a word I needed to look up. But this kind of epiphany is rare for me, and it involved reading, not listening comprehension where in my opinion, progress tends to be more gradual. Edited by William Camden on 11 October 2012 at 9:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 10 of 32 11 October 2012 at 10:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm going to go against the grain and say that that "click" does indeed exist, just not
as the original question by Splog's friend has been answered so far. I remember a specific moment after having lived in Mexico a few months (my first experience living in another country) when I was having an involved conversation with someone. It happened to be about politics in Mexico - I was interested in them at the time, but the subject matter could have been anything. Maybe an hour or two after the conversation was over and the other person was long gone, I was alone thinking about that conversation. I had a moment where I thought "Wow! I didn't need to translate anything in that conversation and I understood everything. Easily!" That was my "click". And it made a huge difference in how I went about using Spanish from then on. I no longer worried about having to be near a dictionary, or whether or not I'd be able to get my point across, or understand what someone else was saying. Obviously, the process to get to that point was gradual, but that identifiable moment of realization caused a big shift in attitude from then on. R. = Edited by hrhenry on 11 October 2012 at 10:58pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| justonelanguage Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4463 days ago 98 posts - 128 votes Speaks: English, Spanish | Message 11 of 32 11 October 2012 at 11:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I actually think that getting the gist is not enough. For example, if somebody says that they "Went to the store to buy X and then went to call Y at their house", if you don't know what product X they bought or what person Y was called, you're missing a LOT.
Obviously, nobody understands everything perfectly but trying to understand as much as we can is a pretty good goal. It's not an all or nothing thing but a progressive improvement in our language skills. I too have *some* issues understanding songs in English but I'm a heck of a lot better than non-natives speakers and aside from some emo songs, I get it all. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 12 of 32 11 October 2012 at 11:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think in that case you wouldn't have got the gist... 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5431 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 13 of 32 11 October 2012 at 11:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Maybe it's not exactly a click or an epiphany in the understanding, but there is something of similar sorts when you can have an interaction, even if it's short, without the slightest hesitation and you feel that you've spoken perfectly (whatever that is.) The dialogue just rolled off your tongue with the right idiomatic expressions.
It's that great feeling when you can say. "Yes sir, I nailed it." 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5767 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 14 of 32 11 October 2012 at 11:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Often, I can relate what was said using my dominant languages, and yet cannot even repeat the foreign language sentence because it is too difficult for my active skill level. Let alone come up with a reply of similar quality.
It's rather frustrating. But I do get moments when my entire focus shifts towards the new language, and I suddenly feel I understand what I couldn't understand just moments before. Those happen when I spend hours at a time listening to content that is just slightly too difficult. Edited by Bao on 11 October 2012 at 11:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 15 of 32 12 October 2012 at 12:21am | IP Logged | |||||
I think his example nicely demonstrates what "gist" is. Somebody bought something and they visited someone. The details are WHAT they bought and WHOM they visited. R. == 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| atama warui Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 4702 days ago 594 posts - 985 votes Speaks: German*, English, Japanese | Message 16 of 32 12 October 2012 at 12:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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But what are you talking about?
Sure there are such clicks! I had a hell of a time "getting" certain grammar points, then decided to ignore them for a moment and get back to them later. After I saw them in action a few times, in context, it suddenly "clicked" - and that usually causes a chain reaction of a bunch of "small clicks" in a row, when some loose pieces fall into place. There are obviously different kinds of learners. Some do actually amass... stuff... and later, it begins to make sense. I have to know the bigger picture before this is the case, while others learn step by step. My type does have such moments, the other one doesn't. That's really all there is to it. No revolution in the brain when the babelfish climbs into your ear though. Edited by atama warui on 12 October 2012 at 12:43am 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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