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A beginner polyglot who lost his way

  Tags: Polyglot | Beginner
 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery Post Reply
customic
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 Message 1 of 8
21 October 2008 at 4:12pm | IP Logged 
Professor Arguelles,

I have read your biography very carefully and I must say, that it made a great
impression on me. In fact, it was for me like reading a “dreams come true” story and
it had a very particular meaning for me, because I have always wanted to know many
foreign languages (not in means of just being able to count from 1 to 10 obviously,
but to know them very thoroughly). I would like to introduce myself to you and write a
few words about me and my dreams. It would be for me a great honour if you find some
time to read it and write a short response. I would be very delighted, Professor.

My name is Piotr, I am 18 and live in Poland. I learnt English at school
and only there; I have never been abroad and I could not afford to have private
lessons. However, English lessons at school were my favourite and I soon started
reading books in English, even if it was too hard for me at that time (I started with
something simple and pleasurable and it was “Harry Potter” series – my parents were
surprised as I managed to do so, sitting with an English book, a Polish version of it,
an English-Polish dictionary and reading paragraph by paragraph, both in English and
in Polish version of the book, analyzing similarities and differences and seeing “how
it is written in the other language”). I think that the best progress I made in
English is because of the extensive reading. I got to know a lot of vocabulary, I
began to use grammatical structures more automatically etc. I thought at that time I
want to devote my life to foreign languages, not only English. I wanted to be fluent
in them like a native speaker.

At my secondary school I started to learn second foreign language and it was German.
At the beginning it was like discovering a new world for me – unknown ways of
conjugating verbs, completely new words and it was for me very exciting. I was very
eager to know German as well as my English at that time. After a year of learning it I
decided to move to a group more advanced in that language, because I wanted to learn
at a faster pace (mainly because I was disappointed with the attitude of other people
in my beginner group – they did not really care about German and they did not want to
learn it). And that is when it all got worse and worse. My new teacher said to me at
the beginning, that she appreciates my decision, but I will not be able to learn
German well enough until the end of the secondary school (that is to say, in 2 years
time). I tried not to be discouraged by her statement and learn it as well as I could,
but it was for me too hard, because by moving to a group with a higher level of
German, I skipped some grammatical structures that should be learnt by me before, and
contrary to my classmates, I was poor in grammar, vocabulary and speaking. Instead of
studying hard and trying to catch up with the others, I let my teacher discourage me
even more – she repeated with a “gentle smile”, that it is impossible to learn a new
language well in 3 years time and that I set up too difficult task for myself. I think
I do not need to tell you, how discouraged I felt. Eventually, I stopped even trying
to catch up.

And now I know I had made mistake. I should never allow someone to tell me, that I am
not able to learn a foreign language in X years’ time. Now I am aware of the fact,
that I could do it. However, I do not know what to do with it now. I still want to
know as many languages as I can. I do not want to give up my dreams. I study English
philology (language teaching specialization) at the Warsaw University, I began to
learn Latin and some basics of Spanish, but I feel that I should give German a try
again. However I do not know how to learn it. I have some skills in it (I passed the
exam at the end of the secondary school, which level is comparable to level B1, so-
called “intermediate”), so I am not sure whether starting with some course at the
beginner level would be the right choice. Mainly I have problems with speaking and all
kind of collocations. I cannot use grammar structures automatically and fluently when
speaking or writing too. I understand the main idea of most written texts, have some
passive vocabulary, I can write simple, informal letters, but that is all I can do.

Professor, I know that my request could be rather demanding and that you are a busy
person. However I would be very grateful if you give me your advice on my particular
case. When I read about your enormous achievements and discovered that, when you were
at my very age, you just started learning your third foreign language - just like me
(provided I understood you correctly), I realized that I still have a chance to become
a polyglot and to fulfil my dreams. And I want to, I do not want to give up German and
let those 3 years to be wasted. I am ready to do whatever it takes to get to know
German. Going abroad is just not possible for me now.

Your advice on this subject would be of crucial importance to me, because I do not
know how to start learning German again. I tried with a course-book, grammatical book
with exercises and word-lists concerning topics like “sport”, “health”, “illnesses”,
but it is not very effective.

I would be waiting for your response and I would really be in your debt if only you
could give me a piece of advice, a kind of signpost, pointing the way I should follow
now.


Yours sincerely,
Piotr





Edited by customic on 19 July 2010 at 3:24pm

3 persons have voted this message useful



customic
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Studies: Arabic (Written), Persian

 
 Message 2 of 8
24 October 2008 at 2:39pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for your messages :) I feel comforted with the thing you had written about my
English. I know that still much can be done about it, but I study it hard and hope to
be perfectly fluent one day.

And both you are probably right about German - maybe it would be wiser to start from
the beginning again, because some of my problems are caused by having learnt basics
not thoroughly enough. I should refresh it and also give the Assimil a try, because I
would like to improve my communication skills. Maybe I learn languages in an
inappropriate way...

However, I still wonder what my next step should be. Maybe I should abandon Spanish
for some time and learn more Latin instead. I found a lot of motivation on this forum
and on the homepage of Professor Arguelles - especially his study chart was helpful, I
made a similar one for myself, but I added activities like "vocabulary learning" and
"listening to news/recordings". Now I should learn to manage my time more efficiently,
to find several hours a day for language learning - it is essential, if I really want
to become a polyglot... But coming back to the methods of learning: I find scriptorium
to be a very useful technique of learning, however I concentrate only on reading out
loud and writing carefully - I don't check grammatical pattern in grammar reference
book, especially if I am not skilled in it (like Konjunktiv, Konditionalsätze in
German), nor do I check words in a dictionary or make wordlists, because it would slow
down my exercise enormously. Does it mean that I do scriptorium the wrong way? Will I
be able to learn grammatical patterns and words without paying attention especially to
them? I am also wondering what about practising writing skills (is it unnecessary to
do so?) and listening to news in a target language - is it useless, as I only
passively listen to it? Would scriptorium and grammar analysis compensate it somehow?

I know I set myself a big goal to achieve, but I want to follow in Professor's
footsteps. Professor Arguelles, I know that I have chosen a difficult path to follow
and that I am at the very beginning of it (nearly 19 years old and knowing only
English, at a not very advanced level). I know that I may sound like an unexperienced
and hesitating teenager, but I know for sure that learning languages is the most
important thing for me. I have known it for a few years, but I believed that "if I
started learning English and German, I will not be able to learn anything else". Now I
can see that becoming a polyglot is an option. A difficult one, but still possible. It
is just that there are so many things to do that I feel confused and not sure what I
should do for now. Would be enough if I concentrate on English, German and Latin now?
Or should I start one more language, if I think seriously of becoming a polyglot? And
if not, when will be the right time to do it and what language it should be?

I am sorry, that I have so many questions and sound so confused, but it is the way I
feel. And I apologize if I have sounded impolite in some of my posts, but it is not
because I do not address you without the proper respect, but it is rather that my
English still needs to be polished.

Piotr

Edited by customic on 19 July 2010 at 3:24pm

1 person has voted this message useful



ProfArguelles
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foreignlanguageexper
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 Message 3 of 8
03 November 2008 at 9:14am | IP Logged 
Dear Mr. Kolibabski:

Thank you for your kindly worded and well-written letter. Your English is perfectly polished and the desire you evince to continue improving it is most admirable. As English becomes more and more entrenched as the universal tongue, I never cease to marvel at how non-native speakers often write it better than native speakers. Perhaps in your case Joseph Conrad is a great-great-uncle?

As for German: so you have had a frustrating experience studying a foreign language in a school classroom - this is, sadly, very, very common. For the majority of people whose interests lie elsewhere, this is not all that tragic, but for those, like you, who feel drawn to language learning, this is understandably most discouraging. Luckily, you have found this forum and clearly know already that you can probably teach yourself better than someone else can teach you, and now you are getting the support to do just this.

Yes, I would also recommend that you get yourself an Assimil or Linguaphone course and work through it from the very beginning. This will be an utterly different way of studying from what you experienced in school, and from the course book, grammar book with exercises, and word-lists that you say you have been using with little effect. As you say you find my scriptorium technique helpful, it will be very good for you to use it in tandem with these kinds of texts, as the vocabulary you need will be given in the accompanying translation, and the grammar in the notes, thus sparing you the interruption of having recourse to a dictionary and separate reference grammar. The first portion of these books will be easy for you, but you ought to work through them swiftly rather than skipping them - thus you will not be starting over from scratch, as it were, but instead simply solidifying the basis that you yourself feel is shaky.

You did not really say much about the levels of your Latin and Spanish, or your techniques for studying them, or your experience in doing so, so it is hard for me to advise you how to proceed in terms of best concentrating your energies. As you have clearly read through my writings, you must know that I do feel that simultaneous study is preferable for polyglots and would-be polyglots, but it is still a wise idea to stagger one's closely related languages. So, if you are a relative beginner in both, it would probably be best to leave one for a while while you concentrate upon the other.

I do hope my thoughts address your main concerns?

With the best of wishes for success in your studies,

Alexander Arguelles
3 persons have voted this message useful



customic
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Speaks: Polish*, English, German, Turkish
Studies: Arabic (Written), Persian

 
 Message 4 of 8
08 November 2008 at 7:42am | IP Logged 
Professor,

I was very happy to read your reply and I am very grateful for what you had advised me
and what you had written previously on other threads - I find your suggestions and
methods most helpful and highly useful. Not only are they very effective, but also
they encouraged me to develop my own, new methods of studying languages. And I am
proud to report that since I started learning with this new perspective, I am able to
find more and more time for languages every single day - now it is never less than 2
hours a day, and yesterday it was even 4 hours. I began listening to news in German
while I commute between school and home, which results in 1 hour a day of listening to
German and understanding more and more. I adjusted your method of scriptorium to my
own ways of studying languages - firstly I do scriptorium as you do, for a half an
hour, and then I take the text I had written and I began the analysis - for example I
look for any grammatical patterns I do not know yet and check them in a reference
book, I circle the subject and verb in every sentence and clause (I find it very
helpful when it comes to learning German syntax), I check if I understand the usage of
grammatical cases in every sentence, I write down all the words I do not know yet and
so on. I study German in this way for nearly 2 weeks and I already feel more confident
about it!

I would like to share with you my resolutions on language learning and ask you for
your opinion, which would be for me very important and helpful.

1. English - I decided to read more books in English, especially those valuable. I
also use every possibility to speak English with friends - and when I am unable to do
it, I talk in English to my dog. The constant improvement of my English seems to be
of the utmost importance to me. I wonder if the scriptorium can be used when I study
English as well? To that time, I used it only for languages I am not so skilled in,
namely German and Spanish. Do you think that scriptorium technique would prove to be
useful also in the case of my English?

2. German - I learn it for at least 1 hour a day and I plan to devote even more time
to it. I use the scriptorium technique combined with grammar analysis, read newspapers
and listen to the news in German. I also began to read aloud in German and imitate the
accent and intonation of the TV presenters. My aim is to sit an exam in May 2009 and
to move to the Faculty of Applied Linguistics at the University. It would not be easy
to achieve this aim, because the exam is difficult, but I think it is still possible
for me to succeed.

3. Spanish - I began learning it with the Pimsleur Course, which is quite similar to
the one of Assimil. I am an absolute beginner and I plan to devote at least 30 minutes
a day to learning Spanish (up to this point I am successful) and, when I am able to do
it, even more time. I want to combine the method of this course with grammar analysis
first, and after 2-3 months with scriptorium, when I will have learnt Spanish grammar
well enough. So I am starting with 30 minutes a day, but hope to put more time into it
when I get more used to studying languages for several hours a day. And I may not good
at fortune telling, but I hope to learn it at least at a basic fluency in a 2-3 years
time.

And now, Professor, I begin to wonder what to do next. To sum up my resolutions in a
few sentences: I decided to learn English, German and Spanish intensively and on a
daily basis. I study them not with those "classroom methods", but with yours and my
own. I plan to achieve advanced fluency in English since the end of 2009, basic
fluency in German since May 2009 and basic fluency in Spanish since the end of 2010 or
2011, it is hard to estimate how much progress I will make. I decided to resign from
Latin for some time. I would like to learn French, Russian and other languages when I
am ready. I believe the time will be right when I feel more confident with German and
Spanish.

Could you tell me whether my aims are realistic and are they sufficient to progress as
a polyglot? Or maybe I should begin learning next language sooner? Would you advise me
to choose French, Russian or maybe some other language to be the next one?

Piotr

Edited by customic on 19 July 2010 at 3:24pm

1 person has voted this message useful



ProfArguelles
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foreignlanguageexper
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 Message 5 of 8
02 December 2008 at 1:52pm | IP Logged 
Dear Mr. Kolibabski:

I am happy to hear that your studies are going so well. I am particularly pleased to learn than you have not just followed my scriptorium techniques as I presented them, but rather adapted and developed them to suit your own needs – that kind of innovative spirit will carry you far.

Certainly, one may most profitably use scriptorium-style techniques for English in your particular case and in general for foreign languages that one knows well already and not just for languages in which one is still in the relatively rudimentary stages. There are two main important considerations for doing so:

1)     Select classically great authors whose style you admire and whose vocabulary challenges you.

2)     Read and transcribe progressively longer and longer passages – whole sentences and perhaps even whole paragraphs at a time.

In this fashion you will come to truly dominate a tongue by means of imitating the grammar, the vocabulary, and the thought process of a master to the degree that you internalize them and make them your own.

In your case, I might suggest looking at the Western Civilization reading list on the Great Books page of my website and choosing a 19th century master of prose – perhaps Carlyle or Macaulay if you are inclined to expository argumentation, or Hawthorne or Poe if well-constructed, grippingly narrated stories are more appealing to you.

Given the intensity of your study and the degree of your progress, your goals for English, German, and Spanish do seem perfectly realistic. If you want to make progress towards becoming a true polyglot, however, you may indeed want to consider adding another language or two sooner than you propose, particularly if they are very different and/or if you can study them in a very different fashion. I would hold off on French until your Spanish is in place, but surely you already know that, as a Pole, learning Russian will be a qualitatively and even quantitatively different and far easier task than anything you have done thus far. Without neglecting your Latin for too long, do your ultimate plans include anything from another civilization? If you ever aspire to Arabic or Sanskrit or Chinese or anything else of that ilk, then it is never too early to begin laying their foundations.

Yours with best wishes for continued success in your language studies,

Alexander Arguelles

3 persons have voted this message useful



customic
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 Message 6 of 8
12 January 2009 at 4:11pm | IP Logged 
Dear Professor Argüelles,

I am sorry that I did not write anything for over a month, but that does not mean,
that I have forgotten about you and your constructive pieces of advice. It is just
that I intended to write to you when I achieve something to be proud of... and I have
not managed to do so yet. I am ashamed by the fact, but there are days when it is hard
for me to study. I am not going to find excuses for myself, because I know it is my
fault - I got used to be lazy and changing it takes me some time. I wish I were
already as well-organised and systematic as you, but I guess it took you a lot of
determination, at least in the beginning. I work on my motivation as well, but it is
difficult.

I am perfectly aware of the fact, that if I want to achieve my goals, I need to
establish this habit of studying each of my languages every day. I do realise that and
I do not feel bad about it, as studying languages give me satisfaction. Still, I find
some difficulties with changing my old habits and that is the reason I need to
introduce those changes gradually, but continually.

I will write to you when I manage to become more steady in my studying habits (and
when my studying becomes more regular) and I hope that it will be soon.

In the meanwhile, I would like to thank you for your last video series on YouTube. I
find all your videos interesting and helpful. Someone wrote as a commentary to one of
them something like "I wish you were my professor" and I can agree wholeheartedly,
that having a tutor like you would be of a great value.

With the best wishes in 2009,

Piotr

Edited by customic on 19 July 2010 at 3:25pm

1 person has voted this message useful



ProfArguelles
Moderator
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foreignlanguageexper
Joined 7016 days ago

609 posts - 2102 votes 

 
 Message 7 of 8
13 January 2009 at 8:39am | IP Logged 
Dear Mr. Kolibabski:

Thank you for the update and for the kind words.

Developing the discipline to overcome laziness and distractions so as to maintain systematically regular study habits can be a very difficult task requiring years and years of repeated resolutions to keep a set schedule despite countless prior backslidings. It is natural to feel demoralized whenever you realize that you have failed yet again, but do not despair, for if the desire is truly there and you strive and strive and strive towards this goal, eventually you will mature into it.

One of the main goals of the kind of language-skills learning institute I envision is to instill this kind of discipline in students and to provide them with an environment in which they can practice it until it became an established character trait. If I succeed in founding such a place in the coming years, then perhaps we will have the pleasure of working together in the not too distant future.

Yours with best wishes,

Alexander Arguelles
5 persons have voted this message useful



customic
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PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5640 days ago

44 posts - 66 votes 
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Speaks: Polish*, English, German, Turkish
Studies: Arabic (Written), Persian

 
 Message 8 of 8
19 July 2009 at 6:37pm | IP Logged 
Dear Professor Argüelles,

It has been a long time since I last wrote to you, but now I have something to announce
to you and be proud of – as I have written before, I was studying English philology,
having hopes of moving to the Faculty of Applied Linguistics at the Warsaw University.
And to my great surprise and happiness – I have managed to do so! I have passed the
entrance examinations scoring 100% of the total points in English and 94% in German
(the approximate level of these exams could be labelled “upper-intermediate” or B2,
using the Common European Framework) and soon enough I will be enrolling in my most
preferred field of study. I cannot find the right words to say how extremely happy I
am, let alone doing it in English!

I believe I am going to spend the next 5 years honing my skills as a future linguist,
learning languages even more intensively (as I am doing quite well with my Spanish and
I have devised a 5-year-long study plan for myself, including fostering the skills in
languages I already know and also learning more of them, e.g. Russian, French) and
pursuing my linguistic interests. I would like to thank you once again, because if I
had not met you, I would have never been able to enrol in this field of study.

I believe and I wish, that if you succeed in founding your institute one day, I will be
able to work with you when I graduate in applied linguistics. I would be very willing
to help you achieve your educational endeavour.

Yours with best wishes,
Piotr


Edited by customic on 19 July 2010 at 3:25pm



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