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The brain as an oven | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Zhuangzi Nonaglot Language Program Publisher Senior Member Canada lingq.com Joined 6837 days ago 646 posts - 688 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Japanese, Swedish, Mandarin, Cantonese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 10 26 November 2007 at 11:30am | IP Logged | ||
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1) The brain takes time to bake (get used to) a language, no matter how hard you go at it.
Of course it is a good idea to study with intensity. But, however intensely you go at it, the brain takes its time. It was suggested on another thread here that one could learn a language in 7 days. That has not been my experience. The brain takes time to get used to a new language, no matter how hard you go at it. 2) The new language bakes in the brain even when you are doing nothing. Once you have started learning (and I am referring to intensive listening and reading and not artificial grammar study), the language will continue to "rise" even while you are doing nothing. Periods of benign neglect do not hurt the learning process. 3) Spending time on a third language will improve your ability in the second language, speed up the baking process, so that when you go back to listening to the second language you understand more, you notice more and you absorb more. 12 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Maikl Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6034 days ago 121 posts - 145 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch, English, Spanish Studies: Turkish | Message 2 of 10 26 November 2007 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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What you're saying is quite interesting.
I was just about to learn some Spanish words and ideoms but now i think i'll leave it and instead let rise the yeast in my brain. Think i'm going to watch that beautiful film "Hable con ella" instead. I think in traditional Chinese cooking you have this principle about using ingredients: you can mix some with some but not with others, which apparenty is not only a question of taste or colour but also a manifestation of some deeperlying harmony of all things. Something similar may apply to languages: some just don't go together. I (on and off) learnt Spanish and Italian and it didn't get me anywhere, at least not where i wanted to be (speaking fluently, understanding native speakers). The reason for this seems quite obvious: Both languages are too similar. When i learnt Turkish i had the feeling that this language is so foreign in vocabulary and structure that it couldn't possibly interfere with all the others... But did my learning Turkish actually support my knowledge of other languages? I'm not sure, it probably did... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gilgamesh Tetraglot Senior Member England Joined 6051 days ago 452 posts - 468 votes 14 sounds Speaks: Dutch, English, German, French Studies: Polish | Message 3 of 10 30 November 2007 at 6:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Zhuangzhi, I like the way you actually think about some aspects of language and I found the points mentioned to be true - at least for myself. Keep up the good work.
Although the 'benign' neglect has to be really 'benign' because you can easily let everything slip and, well... I guess this goes just for me, as I tend to be lazy. Edited by Gilgamesh on 18 January 2008 at 4:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6248 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 10 30 November 2007 at 6:31pm | IP Logged | ||
All three of these points match my experience. I've been shocked repeatedly at how much I've progressed after neglecting specific languages for short amounts of time, though extended breaks tend to be mildly harmful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6359 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 5 of 10 30 November 2007 at 10:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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A couple thoughts that are somewhat related to Zhuangzi's excellent observations.
(related to 1. above) A theory of mine: something like a chemical reaction that takes time to happen, you should try to keep your brain saturated all the time. But being over-saturated (over-studying) doesn't help much, if at all. Studying and taking in just enough material to keep the brain saturated is ideal. (related to 3. above) Learning new material in a language will help make old material take better hold. For example, I might stop learning new stuff so that I can learn some vocabulary that's giving me trouble. Sometimes I can go for a week trying to get the old stuff to stick, and still have troubles. But the minute I give up and add new material again, the old stuff will take hold. Analogies are silly, but I think of needing the new material to "pack down" the old material. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| arodriguez66 Diglot Newbie United States lepensuer.wordpress.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5405 days ago 34 posts - 35 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Russian | Message 6 of 10 29 January 2010 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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These observations are corrects. Sometimes the part of the brain that is needed to "learn
and understand" something is busy doing something else. Therefore, is good to take a break and let the brain work on it. When I was majoring in Math, there were occasions that I could not resolve the math problems. The solution to this was to take a good night sleep and much to my surprise early next day I was able to resolve the problem. So yes, your comments about "baking time" are true. There are scientific studies in this matter. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5376 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 7 of 10 30 January 2010 at 12:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting analogy. I agree that taking short breaks from a language can help. I think it helps your brain to move things from short term memory to long term memory. However, you have to be careful not to use this as an excuse to not study. If you spend too much time "taking breaks", you won't see much progress.
Sleep also helps move things from short term memory to long term memory. For this reason it is crucial that serious language learners get plenty of sleep. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MegatronFilm Triglot Senior Member United States peligrosa.tumblr.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5747 days ago 130 posts - 275 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 8 of 10 30 January 2010 at 6:53am | IP Logged | ||
Its nice that you say this because my French has improved from getting more sleep this semester and practicing more. Sleep really does help. Plus its nice to see the progress in dreams! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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