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10,000 hours of input

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
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Superking
Diglot
Groupie
United States
polyglutwastaken.blo
Joined 6404 days ago

87 posts - 194 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 57 of 60
14 March 2012 at 3:27pm | IP Logged 
Personally, I would rather sidestep the whole issue of the number 10,000. I would caution people not to take numbers like that too literally, as the principal reason it caught on like it did is because it's such an aesthetically pleasing number. 1 followed by 4 zeroes. Are you not fluent if you've logged 9,941 hours of productive learning, practice, and immersion, simply because you're 59 hours short? Of course not. "10,000" is at best a placeholder for the idea that expertise doesn't come overnight and is hard earned after a long period of absorption and reproduction of ideas, and at worst possibly a disingenuous attempt to earn money by peddling a pretty number as scientific truth.

However, there was a very potentially fruitful question in the original post, which is: Are large amounts of study in one day just as productive as much smaller amounts spread over longer periods of time? This may be a question without a universal answer, but I will say that the law of diminishing returns is of the brethren of death and taxes -- it is inevitable.

I can spend an hour, maybe two or three, learning something in one day. But I spend time with my wife, I have a job, I must sleep and eat, etc. and I must also have time to absorb what I've learned. There comes a point where my brain simply won't accept anymore knowledge at one time and shouts for me to stop reading books and just relax for a while. For me, if I can get in an hour (or even 30 minutes) a day, and do that every single day, then that's a sustainable level of practice that will get me where I want to go. Trying to fit in 6+ hours a day of ANYTHING is going to burn me out and make me want to quit.

Learning is, of course, a lot like watering a plant. Over the course of the plant's life, it will be fed a quantity of many, many gallons of water. Yet if you try to give it all the water at once, you will probably drown it. The best way is to give it as much as it's able to absorb on a regular basis, giving it more the more it grows, and that will ensure a much longer, healthier life.
5 persons have voted this message useful



Chill
Diglot
Groupie
Japan
Joined 4926 days ago

68 posts - 77 votes 
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: French

 
 Message 58 of 60
14 March 2012 at 11:40pm | IP Logged 
Superking wrote:
   But I spend time with my wife, I have a job, I must sleep and eat, etc. and I must also have time to absorb what I've learned.


Seriously, check out the AJATT site. It sounds like the method was made for you. Khatzumoto himself followed it when he was a full time university student, with two part time jobs and a girlfriend.

The 10,000 hours is of passive listening, not active studying. It comes out to 18 to 24 hours a day, every day for 18 months!

Personally, I am convinced that Khatzumoto has come up with something fundamentally different from what everyone else is doing. But no matter what, there are a lot of good ideas over at the blog.
1 person has voted this message useful



atama warui
Triglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4462 days ago

594 posts - 985 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, Japanese

 
 Message 59 of 60
15 March 2012 at 10:12am | IP Logged 
Personally, I think Khatzumoto used TONS of other material to learn. Nothing can come from nothing. A language with fundamentally different grammar can not just be cracked by having examples. Maybe it can, if you just do "over 9000" sentences, but IMHO, that's a lot of time wasted.

AJATT has some nice, long-winded, cool-worded motivational postings, saying next to nothing in a lot of words, that's my impression. The whole site could be formulated in 3 sentences.

He has some followers tho. A billion flies can't be wrong: Shit tastes great.
1 person has voted this message useful



mr_intl_dj
Newbie
United States
Joined 6445 days ago

23 posts - 24 votes
Speaks: English

 
 Message 60 of 60
16 March 2012 at 1:39am | IP Logged 
@ atama warui - Dude, that's so funny!

10,000 hours - .............

still laughing at message 59 and another post somewhere else that Ari wrote.


1 person has voted this message useful



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