Table of Contents

Table of Contents Introduction

 

Chapter One: Path to Proficiency

 

Chapter Two: Building the House and Keys

 

Chapter Three: Extending the House

 

Chapter Four: Ancient Houses

 

Chapter Five: Conclusion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

Hello, my name is Stephen and I am a linguist. Some say that we are born into our vocation while others say that it is something developed over time. In the case of language acquisition, both are true. We are all inherently language learners being a highly adaptable and intuitive social species. Language will and always has taken on new and exciting forms that continuously change and adapt to new environments. Some languages die, while others flourish and change into something new. Each language has its own rhythm, its own method of thought, and its own fundamental values. In a sense, Language is everything, language is life.

     I have studied languages ever since I was in homeschool before 5th grade. My mother taught me to read, write, and speak Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. I read Beowulf in old English as a child. While I can remember almost nothing of these languages, the dedication instilled in me has carried on. I studied at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA. I learned and collaborated among thousands of people in my field. I learned that everyone is an individual and we all are interested by different languages. Not everyone, however, is interested in what is commonly thought of as language. The oral, visual, and auditory skills of communication are possessed by all but a passion of few. If your language is in a vocation such as science, medicine, or something else then you are probably not interested in the textbook definition of language studies. Instead, such people focus on a different sort of language acquisition and study. If you see other languages, foreign to you, as a novelty then this book is not for you. I will not be sharing my knowledge of language acquisition in areas of vocations, often referred to as jargon, but will instead be imparting my skill in the auditory, visual, and spoken word. Please take my words with a grain of salt. Do not believe everything you’re told but instead study for yourself. Give into your creative individuality and search out your own answers. All advice is free, but time is finite. I hope that you enjoy this book.

 

 

Chapter One: Path to Proficiency

This book is about learning languages but often things applied to language learning transfers into other areas. The path to proficiency in any trade or skill requires intuitive knowledge of oneself. To become a true master, an individual must know his or her own strengths, weakness, and habits. Studying, the only thing we do to acquire practical knowledge, is done by each person in his or her own way. To restate, study techniques must be tailored to the individual, by the individual. I saw this during my days learning languages and I was told as such by another student. On the verge of failing, I had to find my own way to study. I could not do what everyone else did or I would fail. However, the secret is that no one person studies the same. Certain methods of study interest some, while others are appalled by such techniques and find them boring. I discovered that my technique was to only study grammar and vocabulary through writing. Next, I would watch TV, YouTube, or anything I could get my hands on. I would listen to music while driving in the car. If needed then I would go in search of a foreign speaker to practice with. This is my path to proficiency and I have repeated it many times. I could only do two things that were boring to me, but the rest had to be something which I enjoyed doing. You’re destined to fall short of mastery without the right focus and practiced methods in learning. You are also destined to fail in any area when you perceive it as work instead of something to enjoy and have fun with. In fact, I would go so far as to say viewing a job as work will make you unhappy and ultimately fail. This has been my experience on this subject.

     Other examples of unique training methods for language learning I will list here. The shadowing method which involves listening to audio played sentence by sentence or word by word. The word or sentence is then repeated by the listener at the same cadence which engrains the flow of the language in the mind. The word by picture technique is often used in languages that have no pictographic alphabet. The word by picture technique is when a word looks like a picture and that is how it is remembered. An example of this is like the word “letter” which might look like a ship from the side. Another method for vocabulary is to list words in categories with different colors. For grammar, the common method in Latin based languages is to use a T-box which has the six conjugations for verbs in it. There are as many examples for learning as there are creative people to develop them.

     Most children operate in a hear and repeat fashion of learning languages. It is often referred to as the baby method. However, children see it as a game or puzzle. Children do not conceptualize work but instead they know only of playing. They learn pain and sorrow as they grow older. Although, we all have an inherent fascination with playing and puzzles, even as adults. While we retain some of our child like qualities, our minds are not so open to learning in the same way. An engrained habit or strongly developed belief blocks this method. We must devise other ways to circumnavigate our own limits that we have placed on ourselves. Our experiences can be a barrier. Instead, we should see them as a foundation. That which we have already learned should be built upon. It is futile to tear down your foundation. A house builder does not tear down the foundation to a house when all he must do is extend it. Should a remodel be required, the builder does not rebuild the house, but he simply exchanges the outer surface. Our experiences and beliefs that we hold strongly is our foundation. Over time we build upon this foundation and build our home. We exercise our mind and it grows and extends. We sometimes remove previously held beliefs that are not strongly held. In this way, people can change on a certain level. However, that foundation will always be there. We cannot change the foundation. Even if a belief held so strongly is incorrect, we cannot work against it. Not matter how hard you try, you can never remove someone’s foundation, not even your own.

     In languages, many people will learn a handful or even a book of phrases and say that they speak it. This is like the builder remodeling the home, attempting to change what is already there. The master language learner will instead extend his home by building something separate, which has its own foundation built upon the

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: S. C. W. Coleman-Roush
Bildmaterialien: S. C. W. Coleman-Roush
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 17.10.2018
ISBN: 978-3-7438-8389-5

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