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How to Become a Polyglot by D. Spivak | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6732 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 9 of 73 17 February 2007 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Recently, I reread the third and final chapter, called "Advice to a beginner polyglot", of Spivak's book. The last section of this chapter lays out his approach to language study. It is more traditional than what seems to be the norm for most people in this forum, but some aspects of his approach are interesting or at least offer food for thought.
I decided to post a few excerpts for those who do not (yet!) read Russian. Below is the introductory part of this section. The rest will randomly appear sometime before the end of this millenium. As you will undoubtedly notice, Spivak writes in a somewhat colorful style, but more relevant is the fact that I am terrible at translating. Also, the translation is entirely free style, aimed only at capturing the overall meaning, if that. Anyway, here goes: Teach yourself polyglottery for beginners - a short course At this point you already know all the secrets of the polyglots, and we can now talk as equals, as colleagues. And yet, by way of concluding, allow me to offer you some simple and precise instructions. In fact, if you come to feel doubtful about some of them, trust the author: all that will be discussed here is firmly based on science and many years of experience by the polyglots. Try to follow all the recommendations in the form and in the sequence in which they appear. This is important, for without some of the parts being offered to you, the mechanism may not work. In the details, however, you have complete freedom. For example, it might say that you must memorize a list of words, perferably by yourself, from a notebook. But if you absorb better aurally, ask a family member to read it to you, if you are more visual - write the words in color on a sheet of paper and hang it over your bed. Keep trying different things, keep exploring yourself, but somehow you've got to master that list. For what is recommended, is for everyone, and it's up to you to adapt it to your own personality and talents. The latter are guaranteed to exist. And while you are looking for them, the most important thing is to not torture yourself, to not wear yourself out. Remember: the only type of labor that works with a language is the kind that requires daily, but not strenuous, effort. It's great when you derive pleasure from the effort. If your find this feeling appear momentarily in your studies, "capture" it, try to remember and reproduce it. This is the key to success, while the rest of the tricks are merely assistants. And so, despite the concise and practical nature of this chapter, I will ask you to listen to an ancient fable. There was once a farmer, who sowed some grain and was hoping for a quick crop. So, as soon as he saw the shoots appear out of the ground, he started pulling on them, so as to make them grow faster. The roots clung to the ground for a while and ... tore off. The shoots dried out, and the impatient farmer went hungry. The moral of the story is: all living things grow gradually, and one can only speed up their development to a point. As you understand, of course, it's not the plants we are concerned with here. The same can be said of mental health. Its essential ingredient is love of one's own language and respect for someone's else's. That's why we've already said and will say it again, that interest and ability in languages is neither a profession nor a hobby, but a character trait. It goes with this that in your studies you will not have to labor hard, but neither will you get to laze around. First you have to determine how much you need the chosen languge. Whether you are ready to make it your companion in life. Suppose you are not. Then why do you need it? [to be continued] Edited by frenkeld on 17 February 2007 at 5:25pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6657 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 10 of 73 17 February 2007 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | ||
I think that fits me very well. I try very hard to learn a language well, to the point where I am very harsh on myself and unforgiving. In a sense, instead of making friends with the language, I'm acting like a drill sargent on myself trying to learn it. I've gotten a bit better over the past few months, but I'm still like that with pronunciation. People keep telling me that it's impossible to learn a native-like pronunciation but I keep not listening to them, and sometimes I'm not sure if I'm being too hard on myself about it, and not letting in come naturally. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6994 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 11 of 73 17 February 2007 at 5:30pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks frenkeld. The chapter looks interesting, or at least the translation makes it so. Edited by luke on 17 February 2007 at 5:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Farley Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6881 days ago 681 posts - 739 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 73 17 February 2007 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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David,
Thanks for the translation. I’m looking forward to the rest. John 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6732 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 13 of 73 17 February 2007 at 7:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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[continuation - 2 of 8]
.... Next you will need a textbook of the chosen language. ... It is best to get a textbook for self-learners. ... ... And now, armed with the textbook, patience, and interest, we can move on to the main part - the lesson. Having established the format of the lessons, we will try to stick to it for the most part. In this regard, moderation and diligence are key to success. The format of the lessons consists first of all in their regularity. All polyglots say in unison that one should study daily. I'd like to bring it to your attention that periodicity is a force multiplier: better a short lesson each day of the week than one Sunday from dawn till dusk. Estabilish the duration of a lesson. The optimum is 45 minutes a day, only without a minute's break. Usually people want to extend the lesson beyond an hour, they start reading on suburban trains, put in extra time during holidays. However, when they get busy, they make the lessons shorter. I'd like to warn the reader off of such extremes. As far as extending the lessons, at best it's useless, because attention has its limits, and at worst - downright detrimental, for you will quickly get bored with the language. Still, if you have time and desire, plan on a 15-minute or so repeat lesson three to four hours after the main one, and save the appetite for the language until tomorrow. Shortening the lesson also has its known limits - it should last no less than 30 minutes, or the brain just doesn't have enough time to fully kick in. And if you don't have even half an hour, you may wish to take a second look at your life. So, 45+15 minutes - that's an A+ schedule, 45 minutes - an A, 30 minutes - a C. If your schedule happens to get disrupted, try to get back to the regular routine in the next three to four days. Such a break is not really significant. If, on the other hand, you have stopped for a week or more, there's no choice - start with lesson one. Try to set a fixed time for your studies and do not vary it needlessly. I understand this may not be easy, but it should be possible nevertheless. According to scientific opinion, the best study time is from 8:30am until 10:30am or from 4:30pm until 6:30pm, and it happens to be the case that in the first case the short-term memory is at its most active, while in the second - the long-term. So, it would be nice to study during these hours, and especially nice if you could do the 45-minute lesson in the morning, and towards the evening repeat it during 15 minutes. By the way, most likely you've been conditioned to this rhythm at school or at work. If not, no big deal - sprinkled throught the 24 hours are other, although smaller, productivity peaks. And if you firmly establish any period of time convenient to you and stick to it, one of such peaks will surely happen to be nearby and will shift to your study interval. That's in the nature of things. Let's establish the location of the studies too. Preferably, it should be fixed. As to where to study, it makes no difference whatsoever. If it's at home or at work, find yourself a comfy spot where you can settle down for half an hour without disturbing anybody; if it's in public transport on the way to work, so much the better! Generations of polyglots, include the author of this book, have studied languages in streetcars and buses and couldn't be happier with it. ... There is only one important thing here - to ride without transfers for half an hour and that there be no one to talk to... Squeeze through to the nearest lamp or window, open the book and bury yourself in the wonder world of languages. [to be continued] Edited by frenkeld on 22 February 2007 at 12:03am 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6732 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 14 of 73 18 February 2007 at 7:24am | IP Logged | ||
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[continuation - 3 of 8]
Let's move on to the contents of a lesson. With regards to pronunciation, spend as little time as possible on it. In the early stages master the roughest Russian equivalents to the sounds of the language you are studying, and for now do not improve your pronunciation. If, while reading the texts, you get stuck at some point, go back to phonetics, review the spelling rules in a minute or two and, without delay, get back to what you were doing. The time will come yet to deal with prononciation. The grammar, introduced in each lesson, should be understdood in principle: ignoring the subtleties and exceptions, try to grasp the core of the rule the same way you grasp the main idea of a culinary recipe or a weather forecast. Pronunciation and grammar should take up the first quarter of a lesson. The second quarter is devoted to reading a text [here, a reading passage]. Reading it, one should not try to understand everthing at once. It's enough to catch on to who is doing it and what it is he is doing. One should in no case be pointlessly leafing through a dictionary, copying everything one doesn't know. Nor should one be guessing the meaning without looking at any study aid at all. Calmly, remembering the typical word order in a given language and how the different parts of speech in it differ from each other, one ought to try to zoom in on those two or three words that bear the main load of each phrase. Suppose now that in the sentence you've just read such key words have been underlined. And don't be afraid - you already have the skill to find them. ... It's enough to remember how we compose a telegram. One drops everything inessential from each sentence, until one is left with what absolutely cannot be dispensed with. Reading a foreign text, imagine that out of each sentence you need to make a telegram. These key words are the ones that should be memorized. The third quarter is devoted to memorization. Foreign words, extracted from the text by the "telegraphic" method, are written down in a column, each with its translation. Now cover the Russian column with your hand and master the foreign one. How you do that is up to you. If necessary, remember how you memorized poems and songs in your childhood. During each lesson master 10 to 15 words. If you have extracted less than 10 to 15 words from the text, add others, to your taste. If you ended up with more, during this lesson read only the part of the text containing these 10 to 15 words. Altogether, during the initial phase you need to master about 800 words. They should be evenly divided between all the reading passages. Say, if the textbook has 25 reading passages, each of them should bear 800 / 25 = 32 words. That's the number of key words you should write down. If the reading passages are too numerous or they are very long, do not hesitate to drop some of them. The last quarter of a lesson consists of reading the text. You've already found the key words in it, identified grammatical relationships connecting them, and have memorized all of that. With regards to the rest of the words, it's enough for you to pronounce them correctly. You can write their meaning in pencil over each word. The phrase should be read unhurriedly, as a single whole, aloud, but softly - under one's breath, as they say. Each one should be done twice: the first time, sorting things out through the key words; the second, more quickly. The whole passage is read two to three times. The lessons are organized in pairs: during an odd-numbered lesson one studies a new reading passage, while the even-numbered one is devoted to its repetition in the same order. Each lesson will come with surprises, above all in that things you thought you had firmly mastered mercilessly drop out of your memory. This is normal. Don't think that the language is not staying in your head. It's just that the memory has not yet gotten used to handing over everything related to it on order. Don't get nervous about it, and above all, do not immediately drop the new reading passage. Remember your weak spot and in the corresponding part of your lesson give it special attention. Say, if you forgot how to pronounce the word, go back to it in the first quarter, and if you forgot the meaning, in the third. This is essential in order to avoid scattering one's attention. And finally - I will stress it again - one should tune into each lesson, setting aside the worries of daily life and getting into a calm and even self-conceited mood. That's why I advise you: when starting a lesson, recall some pleasant events and encounters, calm down. ... All the remaining hours of the day we declare to be practice time for the new langage ... [to be continued] Edited by frenkeld on 22 February 2007 at 12:03am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| workerbee Senior Member United States Joined 6640 days ago 173 posts - 178 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish Studies: Russian, German | Message 15 of 73 18 February 2007 at 8:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you much for providing a translation to this interesting piece! Please keep up the great job for those of us that can't read Russian (yet).
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6732 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 16 of 73 18 February 2007 at 1:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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[continuation - 4 of 8]
All the remaining hours of the day we declare to be practice time for the new language. ...... All this will help you practice all four mandatory language skills. Above all - understanding speech. Look out for ... geographical names, greetings, single words in the language that fascinates you. Find some song recordings - try to get used to the melody of the singing, learn the lyrics, even if you don't understand the words. Use the accumulated knowledge in your own speech - try to talk to yourself in your native language with "their" accent. And with others do not hesitate to use the new words you've already mastered. Stick them into your own speech ... Do similar things in reading - look out for inscriptions in the language you are studying, on labels, shoes, and T-shirts. As far as writing is concerned, in spare time, try to write your name or the name of the city you live in in the script you are studying. Generally, all four skills allow you complete freedom - it can halve the difficulty level of your language studies. This phase will take you 3 to 4 months. You must become familiar with the fundamentals of grammar, master 800 commonly used words, and acquire the most precious - language intuition, internalize the spirit of the language. Then you can rest for about a month. If after that you discover that you have forgotten a lot, do not get upset. It is not lost and in the future will form a solid foundation for your studies. In case you've forgotten nearly everything, it is recommended to repeat the course. Pay special attention to your... mistakes! There is no more accurate indicator of your language abilities and shortcomings. Some of them consist in transferring native language patters to the target language. ... Other mistakes consist in using the patterns of the target language where they are not meant to be used. [An example of use of the regular conjugation pattern for an irregular verb by a foreigner trying to speak Russian.] But he doesn't have to know detailed subtleties. It is enough that he has mastered the more general rules of the Russian language. And any of us will easily understand him. It so happens that the more mistakes of the second kind you make, the better off you are, the closer you are to the next stage of learning - for those continuing their study. We will talk about it in the same sequence as before. First, preliminary considerations. It is the right time to hold counsel with yourself and decide: has your desire to learn this language faded? If it has, there's nothing to be afraid of - the important thing is to understand if this has to do with this particular language or any language in principle. In the former case, do not feel bad. Those internal barriers you have overcome will be twice as easy when studying another language - the one that has become more important to you. If, on the other hand, you have lost interest in all languages, this is most likely the fault of your first "entry in society" that you'd rather never be reminded of. Perhaps you had to translate some elementary text or, god forbid, say something, and you, to your great shame (and so on and so forth)... No big deal - every polyglot knows this feeling. The thing is, as one studies the languge, one does not see immediate improvement - it is as if the knowledge were accumulating so as to then suddenly jump to a new level. So, calm down, remember at least how many times you fell of a bicicle and then suddenly, one day... you could ride. If you wish, repeat the first level and boldly move on to this one. You will need the following materials ... [to be continued] Edited by frenkeld on 24 February 2007 at 6:32pm 8 persons have voted this message useful |
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