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Seeing every problem as a language | ||
Tags: Learning Experience | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Retinend Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4104 days ago 283 posts - 557 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), French | Message 1 of 4 05 June 2014 at 11:52pm | IP Logged |
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Ever heard the parable that when you have a hammer, every problem is a nail? Well I'm beginning to think if you study a
language every day, every problem turns into a language analogy. At least it seems to do so for me. Does anyone else feel similar? Some examples: - I can reproduce some music from a sheet but I can't really express myself with an instrument. Well, this is just like a language that I've learned the grammar of, and learned some dialogues of, but haven't reached the point of spontaneous self-expression. Repeating the dialogues makes me happy, and I can measure my progress this way, but it's all a bit hollow until I can go "off track" and start making it about me. - I'm reading some book which presumes a lot of prior knowledge, say some academic history book. Well it's my fault - this is just like diving straight into Goethe after finishing just one volume of Assimil German. (I used to power through books that were way above my base knowledge, but since acquiring this analogy I'm much more attentive to the difficulty of a text for my level of knowledge). - Getting good at some sport. This is surely just like learning a language. At first you find it impossible to just articulate two basic movements at once, but after a while you "chunk" together these movements into one fluid item in your repertoire of moves and your game becomes about higher mental processing of these moves, rather than focusing entirely on ordering your body to move around. Any other examples that have struck you as apt analogies? Are these good analogies, or mostly fanciful? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| chokofingrz Pentaglot Senior Member England Joined 4985 days ago 241 posts - 430 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Japanese, Catalan, Luxembourgish | Message 2 of 4 06 June 2014 at 1:47am | IP Logged |
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For me, sport is almost the anti-language. When I study hard, I overanalyse, I get stressed, I get tired. When I do sport, the brain switches off (at least, the verbal and reasoning parts do), instinct takes over, and the longer it goes on, the more relaxed and focused I become. The two activities seem to be opposites but also complement each other perfectly. If you make enough time in your life to do both to satisfaction, it's a beautiful thing.
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| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3703 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 3 of 4 06 June 2014 at 3:00am | IP Logged |
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I'm a guitar player and when I was younger I was pretty much inseparable from the thing. I used to relate every problem, struggle and situation with guitar/music and I still do. Even language learning; I apply a lot of what I've learned through teaching myself guitar/music to my language learning, and I've been spending so much time on my language learning that I'll use my experience from that as a frame of reference when solving other problems.
I believe it's because you've dedicated so much of your time to language learning and have been through so many obstacles with it that your brain uses it as a map, or frame of reference, when problem solving. You've approached the learning process from so many different angles that you can use your solutions as examples or guidelines for other problems, even if they have absolutely nothing to do with languages. Essentially, any experience can be used in the creation of another, no matter how unrelated they are. This is where the true genius of problem solving lies. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4130 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 4 of 4 06 June 2014 at 3:51am | IP Logged |
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I can definitely relate to this. For one, I see language as the "thing" that taught me to learn. I was a terrible student back when I was in school--it was only when I started learning on my own that I started becoming familiar with the methodology and logic that makes it easier.
I also have a sports-based example of my own: I used to be relatively clumsy when I was young, but when I started applying the principles of repetitive learning to sports, I got really good at several sports I wasn't particularly good at to start with (dancing in particular). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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