It taught me that most of what we think we know about language learning is backwards. The biggest breakthroughs came not from studying harder or longer, but from embracing failure, creating artificial urgency, and treating the whole thing like a game.
It's worth bearing in mind that “learn enough Thai to place my order in Thai next time I go to that Thai restaurant” is a hugely different level depending on whether you mean "place an order and get the thing I was expecting without offending anyone" or "place an order with zero mistakes, misunderstandings or awkward pauses." In my experience too many people are mistakenly aiming for the latter, which is 10 or 100 times harder.
When I spent time in China learning Mandarin I felt like the benefit came less from the immersion as such, and more from the fact that I was forced to be in situations where I had to get something done, and learned how much I could communicate if I stopped worrying about getting everything right.
This is exactly it: "more from the fact that I was forced to be in situations where I had to get something done, and learned how much I could communicate if I stopped worrying about getting everything right." You're so right about the Thai restaurant example too. I just take it for granted that when I say "place an order" I mean "force yourself to be in a situation where you have to express yourself with the words that you have not worrying about getting it all perfect" but I forget that most people don't understand it that way immediately
Loved reading your insights! I’m doing Farsi with a teacher on Preply and find it both fascinating and frustrating how this process is awakening seemingly dead languages in my brain 🤣 the amount of Hebrew words I am remembering all of a sudden or me accidentally wanting to talk in french is so confusing.
I remember 11 years ago in Israel, I was fluent in french and, somehow alongside English, I could communicate with many people in it with ease. From one day to the other I lost French and started to understand Hebrew. Now Hebrew has completely been replaced by my minimal spanish knowledge over the years. I’m curious to see which other languages have to give as I progress with Farsi and which ones will come back miraculously
I know! It's always a surprise which language will suddenly pop out when you least expect it! By the way, I don't think you forget the old ones when you learn new ones, it just feels like that at the beginning, but it all balances out in the end (if you choose to maintain them both that is - which I don't 😅)
What an amazing experience you've had with your language learning process. I totally agree with you on the points you mentioned. In my experience of learning German so far, I've realised that whenever I don't translate it to either English or Persian, and accept it as it is, I continue learning without difficulty (Some Grammar points in German have no equivalent in neither English nor Persian).
P. S.: I've installed a Words Game on my phone. In each level, it categorises words based on a theme. I don't know the meaning of some of these words, but I know to which theme a word belongs to.
Yes! All of this, yes! As a language “teacher” and having studied 10 languages myself, it pains me to have to use a textbook. I’d much rather have students use what they already know to try to get their message across. “It doesn’t have to be perfect” is a hard lesson to have students here (Japan) understand because the language has usually only been taught for exam purposes. There is so much more! Thanks, Yanya. I enjoyed reading your article!
It's worth bearing in mind that “learn enough Thai to place my order in Thai next time I go to that Thai restaurant” is a hugely different level depending on whether you mean "place an order and get the thing I was expecting without offending anyone" or "place an order with zero mistakes, misunderstandings or awkward pauses." In my experience too many people are mistakenly aiming for the latter, which is 10 or 100 times harder.
When I spent time in China learning Mandarin I felt like the benefit came less from the immersion as such, and more from the fact that I was forced to be in situations where I had to get something done, and learned how much I could communicate if I stopped worrying about getting everything right.
This is exactly it: "more from the fact that I was forced to be in situations where I had to get something done, and learned how much I could communicate if I stopped worrying about getting everything right." You're so right about the Thai restaurant example too. I just take it for granted that when I say "place an order" I mean "force yourself to be in a situation where you have to express yourself with the words that you have not worrying about getting it all perfect" but I forget that most people don't understand it that way immediately
Loved reading your insights! I’m doing Farsi with a teacher on Preply and find it both fascinating and frustrating how this process is awakening seemingly dead languages in my brain 🤣 the amount of Hebrew words I am remembering all of a sudden or me accidentally wanting to talk in french is so confusing.
I remember 11 years ago in Israel, I was fluent in french and, somehow alongside English, I could communicate with many people in it with ease. From one day to the other I lost French and started to understand Hebrew. Now Hebrew has completely been replaced by my minimal spanish knowledge over the years. I’m curious to see which other languages have to give as I progress with Farsi and which ones will come back miraculously
I know! It's always a surprise which language will suddenly pop out when you least expect it! By the way, I don't think you forget the old ones when you learn new ones, it just feels like that at the beginning, but it all balances out in the end (if you choose to maintain them both that is - which I don't 😅)
What an amazing experience you've had with your language learning process. I totally agree with you on the points you mentioned. In my experience of learning German so far, I've realised that whenever I don't translate it to either English or Persian, and accept it as it is, I continue learning without difficulty (Some Grammar points in German have no equivalent in neither English nor Persian).
P. S.: I've installed a Words Game on my phone. In each level, it categorises words based on a theme. I don't know the meaning of some of these words, but I know to which theme a word belongs to.
That sounds really cool! What word game is it? I love the idea that it doesn't tell you the meaning of the words but only the theme
Yes, it's cool and addictive. It's "Word Search" and you can download it from Google Play or Apple Store.
Yes! All of this, yes! As a language “teacher” and having studied 10 languages myself, it pains me to have to use a textbook. I’d much rather have students use what they already know to try to get their message across. “It doesn’t have to be perfect” is a hard lesson to have students here (Japan) understand because the language has usually only been taught for exam purposes. There is so much more! Thanks, Yanya. I enjoyed reading your article!