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Mindset in learning | ||
Tags: Psychology | Personality | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| wv girl Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5035 days ago 174 posts - 330 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 15 27 August 2014 at 10:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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So I'm probably not going to have much success with the student who said I don't need to learn this crap, I'm never
going to leave the United States, I won't even be going to Florida? Just venting a little ... I know how important a positive outlook is when beginning a new challenge. Just feel fortunate that not everyone in this class shares his negativity. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Vos Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5362 days ago 766 posts - 1020 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Polish | Message 10 of 15 28 August 2014 at 6:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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Just something which I remembered about this morning.
Angela Lee Duckworth did her PhD on why some people succeed in an endeavour and others don't, and also raises the common question of innate ability/talent vs. time applied and how they weigh up in terms of success. She ended up writing a book on the subject, but her TED talk can be found below which gives a good insight into her work and findings. The conclusion she ultimately drew in regards to the 'key' ingredient for success was grit, the simple (in theory) ability to stick it out. The Key To Success - Angela Lee Duckworth
That's it. I swear when you're in that state it's almost like having a superpower of some kind, or you've momentarily ascended to some higher level. Incredible mindset to be in. Thanks for the info. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5032 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 11 of 15 28 August 2014 at 9:52am | IP Logged | |||||
I said something similar when I went to high school in Ohio. I'm never going to England, why should I go to English class! But the joke was on me, I've lived in England for almost 20 years now. I think the universe has a sense of irony don't you? 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4240 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 12 of 15 28 August 2014 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Learning a different language is more than talent and abilities. In some places people who live as next
door neighbours won't speak each other's languages due to the politics. Some people recognize themselves as a distinctive culture (minorities) within a country. In a place like Quebec City, people recognize they are part of Canada and English is 1 of the 2 official languages including French. The French there besides the shops & restaurants in the tourist area, people have reservations for using English. Another place is Hong Kong. After the handover to Chinese rule, many Hong Kong people have reservations for using Mandarin and Simplified Chinese characters. The locals think of themselves as a distinctive people within the People's Republic and not just another Chinese city like Shanghai or Beijing. There are certain accommodations over the years. The announcements at airports and public transport (subways & trains) have announcement in English, Cantonese & Mandarin. The shops in the tourist district serve customers in Mandarin but the locals would only talk to each other in Cantonese. They tend to stereotype Chinese from the Mainland as being uneducated and impolite. In Canada, students have classes in English & French. In Hong Kong, they have classes in Cantonese, the choice of English or Mandarin. People tend not to be fluent speaking languages except their mother- tongue. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| holly heels Groupie United States Joined 3682 days ago 47 posts - 107 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 13 of 15 28 August 2014 at 11:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The "not being wired for languages" excuse is very commonplace in the USA., but it flies in the face of human evolution, since all humans, even primitive ones, are capable of verbal communication, unless they are deaf mutes.
Almost everyone is wired for languages, to some extent, but most aren't wired for oratory at the Oxford debating society. Probably many of the Kazakh or Mongolian students in China are not wired for learning languages in the classic sense, but somehow many of them go well beyond a B2 level in Mandarin. I just listened to a Mandarin radio program where all the guests were from Neimenggu (Inner Mongolia), and all of them spoke Mandarin fluently, but as a second language. I figure Turkic or Altaic languages are in some ways at least as far away from Mandarin as IE languages, so it must have been a struggle at first to learn it, but they were successful. And knowing that they were successful means I can be successful too, wired for languages or not. Sometimes people say that an entire gender is not wired for languages, or for math. My sociology book says that the female gender is an expression--oriented toward interpersonal communication, and that the male gender is an instrument--oriented toward the accomplishment of a task. So a learner can approach language learning from the mindset of wanting to communicate and express oneself, or the mindset of wanting to accomplish a task, and either method can be successful under the right circumstances. Edited by holly heels on 29 August 2014 at 10:23pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6393 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 14 of 15 30 August 2014 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Fixed the link. Also, I'm now reviewing fellow learners' submissions and one of them wrote several great blog entries. One of them explains focused vs diffuse thinking in more detail than I did. Edited by Serpent on 30 August 2014 at 2:46pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6393 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 15 of 15 30 August 2014 at 2:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
Note that I was mostly speaking about people in an immersion situation, especially children. Interaction without being able to use a more familiar language is a strong motivation on its own. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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