In school, we put a whole lot of focus on study. We think that if we study enough, we will learn more, and if we don't it means there must be something wrong with us. It makes sense, right? That's how it's supposed to work right?
When we study we practice memorization to learn all the things we are supposed to know for a given skill, then we can piece that together and use what we've learned. That is the common approach to learning a language or basically any other skill.
I've met lots of students of various languages who have studied a whole lot and can't speak though. Is it because they just aren't good at learning a language? Or is it because studying is merely one half of the picture.
The Yang of Language Learning
Balance is important in everything we do. When we only focus on one half of the picture, we move forward slowly, or sometimes not at all. It's like trying to get around on one leg without the help of any tools. Learning a language is no different, but we can't have balance if we don't identify exactly what the two aspects that require balnce are.
Studying is the Yang of learning a lanugage. It is the effort and time put in to produce a result, the mechanical or logical approach. It is essential, no doubt. It is the brute force, and in it's extreme, it looks like cramming for a test.
When I say "study" here I'm refering to the practice of memorization, reading and listening, doing formulaic exercises that a teacher assigns you, the dialouge and review sections of a textbook, podcasts, study apps and most anything you do to prepare for an examination. Many people are good at this, or at least they focus on it because it's a very straight forward way of learning where you can measure your progress very easily.
Though it is neccesary, when we focus on it too much without a balncing, integrative force, we tend to forget everything we know, or at best we remember it all but have a hard time using it. Can you relate to that? Knowing a bunch of words and grammar and not being able to speak is quite a common problem.
The Yin of language learning which is often forgotten however is not something which allows for the easy measurement of progress, which is why it's so undervalued. Can you guess what it is?
The Yin of Language Learning
The Yin of language learning is none other than PRACTICE. The reason we don't get enough practice is because we assume that study IS practice, and that is not always the case. Sure textbooks have practice sections for you to use what you've learned, but they fail at making the language something personal to you.
Because "study" and "practice" are both flexible terms that can even be used interchangably at times, I must stress that the kind of practice I am talking about is rather specific. The real Yin of language learning is practice that is relevent to your own life and relevent to life in general. Studying words is not the kind of practice I am refering to, and neither is studying sentences. Speaking and Writing with context, formulating your own sentences and understanding the reply is essentially what I mean by practice.
The reason this kind of practice is so effective is that it is interesting to you. If it is not relevent for you, the chances that you will be able to remember it easily are decreased and when you do remember it, it will come with much more struggle. If it is FUN that helps but it is just as important that it is meaningful to you in some way. That means Jose and Tomoko from the textbook aren't enough. They may help but you've got to take it step beyond.
Combining Yin and Yang for Real Results
The real key to improving quickly and effectively is to make sure you are practicing the same thing you are studying. If you try to practice speaking everything at once it doesn't always stick. Focus on what you are learning. The words you speak don't all have to be true, but it should come from either your experience or your imagination. Have fun with it.
The simplest way to practice what you study is to make sentences, to have conversation using the grammar you have been studying. It's best done in person but online with internet penpals also works well, speak and write at every oportunity. If you can't find anyone else to speak with, talk to yourself! You aren't crazy, you are learning!
"I am inside the microwave." "I am outside the universe."
These are some sentences I practiced saying to friends and stranges in Cantonese. I learned the gramattical structure for stating where something is. I also learned the words "microwave" and "universe" and a bunch of other words I substituted these with. The phrase itself may not be useful but all of it's components are so it's a useful sentence to practice, plus it's fun and I made the sentence from my imagination.
I've found that the strongest correlation between whether or not my students succeed at learning the language is whether or not they are practicing outside of class and outside of textbooks. So try it, I cannot emphasize enough. It's ok to make mistakes too, your teacher will correct them, and you can use a textbook to try and find your own mistakes.
Feel free to share your progress or to contact me on discord @whatamidoing if you are interested in English, Mandarin (beginner) or Japnese (beginner) lessons.
##Authored by @whatamidoing
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Thank you!
I agree with you: in all learning there must be not only theory but also practice. It's no use to handle concepts if you don't know how to use them. In my case I have had a very bad experience with English, but it's because I think I've closed myself off. Human beings are our own saboteurs. I think I've blocked a part of myself, especially when it comes to spoken English. I don't have people in my immediate environment with whom I can converse in this language and when I have been able to do so, I feel very ashamed to make a mistake and prefer to remain silent. Sometimes I've started talking to myself, but it's not the same because I need someone to listen to me and correct me, to guide me. I know that if I want to advance in the acquisition of another language, I must not remain in pure theory, I must practice, practice and practice, even if it is alone. Thank you for your advice, @whatamidoingand and @adsactly for bringing us these learning microtext.
Your written English is just fine! Mistakes are fine! I see mistakes as problems coming out so that they will no longer reside within us. So if we don't make mistake, we don't improve.
Great advice brother. That is definitely missing in most curriculums and also can be hard for students I think because it feels kind of vulnerable. But hey. Strength lies in vulnerability right?
(Nihongo o choto benkyoshimasu)
At least I did once... Obviously I didn't practice enough ;)
Posted using Partiko iOS
You remember it though! No problem, welcome to comment in Japanese any time :-D Practice!
Great!! well said and written and I totally agree with you on this.
Focusing on learning a particular aspects really will help alot for sometimes if you try to learn all you'll find it difficult from identify some words or maybe misusing them unintentionally. Practice they say makes perfect, if you don't practice how else do you want to be perfect. Practicing what is actually relevant to your life also helps, for you'd be more focus in learning it and also it'll have to do with your day to day activities and thoughts.
Next week will be the most effective way to practice :-D
Thanks for reading!
Today i must say i have learnt the yin(practice) and yang (study) of language.
If we study and yet don't practice we will forget about what we have studied. So supporting your prove here, one must study and practice at the same thing in other to be perfect with the language.
While i was learning the "Hausa" language i made i met people who know how to speak it very well, when my friends try to speak the english language instead of the hausa, i try as much as possible to reply them with hausa instead of the english language. Most times when they speak i try to store those words up on my head and then later i ask friends what the meaning of those words are and how they should be a applied. In some cases you will find out that some words are not always used when making a particular sentence or that it meaning changes at different sentences that is been used.
After gathering those words i form a vocabulary with them then on my own spare time i memorize them while practicing it. Today i am still learning new words on it, and i can say i am 80% fluent in the language... However this post has also help me to understand that i will need to practice and study in other to be fluent. Thanks.
That's a great way to practice. When people speak another language that you speak, sometimes they will revert to that language, but if you insist, they will often start to speak the language you are trying to learn. Most people don't persist though, it is a challenge at first.
Find things you make mistakes with and practice making sentences with that grammar!
Dialect learning is tied in with conveying. It's tied in with importance. It's about substance. Along these lines, we need to take in the dialect from substance that is important to us and when we talk we need to impart things that bode well.
We need to have significant discussions and, yet, we do require a specific measure of working out, of workaholic behavior certain muscles, exhausting certain examples in the dialect.
We once in a while allude to it as the 10,000 foot view and the stray pieces or kind of best down, base up, however we sort of need both.
A pragmatic way of applying the conception of yang and yin, @whatamidoing. Raising it in relation to the learning of a second language seems to me very enlightening and useful. Indeed, to remain alone with the strong and hard part that would be the study (theoretical, disciplinary) does not lead us to really learn in any plane, let alone a language. The practice, that which is open and flexible, is what allows us to always dominate something, by means of its alive and direct exercise. I find your considerations and recommendations very appropriate and pertinent, and I thank you, as well as @adsactly for giving us the opportunity to access your contributions. Greetings.
Thank you for reading! I hope it was helpful!
you are absolutely right, we alway focus one aspect of what we are doing while completely losing what we are supposed to achieve there. Thanks for writing such a wonderful article.
Exactly!
Thanks for reading!
Hi, @adsactly!
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Additionally, you could get on a treadmill and you could change to various dialects. They would ensure that they have content on there that was at your level and you would pay $25 per month to go down there and get to practice their gear and take part in their classes. You could either be watching motion pictures on your stepper for 30 minutes or you could be taking a shot at the subjunctive, so you would join both the significant substance based genuine intriguing stuff while practicing or you would center around practicing certain parts of the dialect.
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I complete a ton of my dialect learning while at the same time working out, so in the event that we had a class where we took a shot at the subjunctive in French or Spanish, verbs of movement in Russian or Polish, whatever it may be thus in the event that somebody was up there driving us through these activities and we were rehashing sure expressions or noting questions and rehashing them for a hour concentrating on suppose five essential examples in a dialect in light of the fact that, all things considered, there's not a boundless number of these examples. There are a set number of them, so you could go to a training camp or Zumba where the accentuation would be on the subjunctive in Spanish or something. It might be an unlikely thought, however I'll toss it out there.
This is a spam comment as defined by @steemflagreward. That's good enough for me.
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