Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9608261001.B13425-0100000@sue.econ.su.oz.au> Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 10:06:04 +1100 From: Iain Walker <mailto:iainw@SUE.ECON.SU.OZ.AU> Subject: Re: learning languages (fwd) (long) To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Members of the list who are interested in language learning might be interested in this which appeared on DEVEL-L the other day.Iain Walker * Dept. of Anthropology * University of Sydney mailto:iainw@sue.econ.su.oz.au * ngazidja@jolt.mpx.com.au
"L'homme qui a deux femmes perd son ame; "L'homme qui a deux maisons perd sa raison" or "mdru ukana hahe na ha nduhuze"
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 21 Aug 96 08:49:17 EST From:mailto:Michael_O._Patterson@hud.gov To: Iain Walker <mailto:iainw@sue.econ.su.oz.au> Subject: Re[2]: learning languages
It's rough. I kept an A average in Arabic for 4 years, working full time, in college, against people who'd spent time in country, by way. REALLY LEARNING A LANGUAGE Some thoughts on better ways of learning a language draft piece intended for eventual posting to a community empowerment website.
This material is in the public domain.
INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
TEXT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1. MEMORIZATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. GET OBSESSIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. PENPALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4. HYPNOSIS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5. FIND BOOKS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6. ECOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 7. JUST DO IT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 9. OTHER THOUGHTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 10. MEDICINE STORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
INTRODUCTION
Watch a young child, learning- it's the greatest fun there is! For some reason, in schools, some people think learning should be dull and boring. You figure it.
Americans can be kind of lazy with languages, assuming 2 years of language study will do what any other country takes 8 to do. I was never told any of the following info in school. I had to work full-time in College, I never had time to study the way they tell you to.
I kept an A average in intensive College level Arabic, for 4 years worth, and graduated at the top of my class in another language. My last 2 years, when I had these methods, I had a 3.5 GPA. Results are the only report card. Following are some ideas on how to learn a language with less effort and better effect.
I'd acquire or borrow 4 books.
The Memory Book, Harry Lorayne, Jerry Lucas.
Jerry Lucas played ball for the Celtics at one time. In college, he had little time to study, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. What does that say to you? Lorayne memorized the NY City White pages, to show it could be done. The meat of the book is 20 pages, the rest is application.
Superlearning, Sheila Ostrander.
Education will be forever fun if they adopt these ideas. In the meantime, use the music during study. I wrote my 4th year Arabic final over 27 consecutive hours, and the music worked for me.
The Photoreading Whole Mind System, Paul Scheele.
I can't do justice to this book, best to look at it.
Language Acquisition Made Practical E.T. Brewster. Pasadena, CA: Lingua House, 1976.
Recommended in the Whole Earth catalogs. Enough said.
TEXT
So you've chosen to learn a language. Ever watch a kid under 10 learn a language? They do it effortlessly.
1. MEMORIZATION. Ooooooh. Feel a cold chill in your stomach already, do you? Baaad word, scaaary, right? Hey. Relax. Check out The Memory Book. They have methods that date back to at least the ancient Greeks, that work great. Cut your study time in half, and make it more fun.
Take your daily dialogue, and MEMORIZE it. Yes. If you have to, write the first word of each line on a paper, to guide you. Then, using a rhythm like the teacher, practice it just like you would a piece of music. Taste the language, make it a song, like a chant, sing it to the tune of "God Bless America" or something, PLAY with it. I know you haven't forgotten how to PLAY, right? Why do you think kids learn so effortlessly? THEY'RE PLAYING. Use a metronome if you have to, get the rhythm down, pull in your creative brain. Have fun with it. Do it in a falsetto, do it in a Southern accent, do it through your nose, whatever is FUN for you, and just keep doing it till you have it memorized.
If you have to, set up a peg system, from The Memory Book, to keep it together. If you do nothing else, DO THIS. Period. End of statement. Slack off anywhere else, but DO THIS. I used to overdo, to memorize my dialogue so it was so fast the teachers had to slow me down to understand it. To this day, I remember some dialogues... and the language!
2. GET OBSESSIVE
Get a shortwave radio, and record programs in your language. listen to them on a Sony Walkman. I had a buddy who listened to language tapes from a class he wanted to take, 10 times per tape, before he ever entered a classroom. Why? Sound and rhythm habituation. The whole class wasn't new, it was a review. Keen, huh? Now, make up an imaginary playmate, just like a kid of 5. OK, so you're older. Want some emotional "juice"? Make that imaginary playmate a ravishing version of the opposite sex, and you can only talk to them, and they to you, in your target language. I was in a Government school when I heard this technique, and it works! I saw a Spanish course advertised set up this way, so apparently the idea is getting out.
If you have a buddy in a college, maybe they can copy tapes for you. I had a friend who wrote the Saudi embassy, for advice on the best language course in Arabic, that was all. He happened to be Muslim, which of course helps rapport in that language. He got a $500 language course back in the mail, free of charge. He was shocked- and proceeded to make good use of it. No guarantees, but ask for help and advice. People like to feed interest, so show it as often as you can. 3. PENPALS Go to your public library, look up "Correspondence Clubs" in Encyclopedia of Associations, and get a pen pal in your target language. Period. Just do it. This will ground your study and make it real in a way you can't yet imagine. If you can practice with native speakers, so much the better. Trade useful books and dictionaries.
4. HYPNOSIS The National Guild of Hypnotists, POB 308, Merrimack, New Hampshire, has a booklist that is pretty good. You want a good book on self-hypnosis, so you can make a tape with suggestions about your performance increasing. The only problem with this method is that you don't feel any different, it's just that somehow other people somehow seem to be getting stupider and stupider. That is wierd, let me tell you. Well, it works, and if they're interested, well, let them know how you did it. Timeline Therapy ..., by Tad James, is a book I like, as is Power Hypnosis. There are many many other books on the subject. Avoid anything that feels negative, and you'll do fine.
If you can find a book with profanity and other inappropriate language in it, so much the better. Kids learn that language fast, because there's so much emotional "juice" in it. Just be careful how you use it! Parodying your basic text can also be fun. [A friend, in a French class, tired of hearing all semester about the adventures of Claude and Simone, saccharinely polite folks, did a parody dialogue with lines like "Claude, you animal! Take your hands off me, or I'll kick you!". It brought down the house, and of course his language skills got a boost- he had fun playing.]
5. FIND BOOKS in your target language, on subjects that interest you and have a lot of "juice" for you. Translations of your favorite English books are a great place to start. The Strand is a great used bookstore in NY City, and NY City has a lot of foreign bookstores, too. Check out a Yellow Pages for the city at your library. I got a great Spanish dictionary, hardbound and 4" thick, as a publisher's overstock for $8 from there.
If you do anything serious in your language, GET THE BEST DICTIONARY you can afford. Write to a college, and ask what dictionaries their courses use. For example, the best single Arabic dictionary is Hans Wehr's dictionary, by far. There are 10 other dictionaries in print, none as good. You can save much money, effort, and time by knowing that. They also sometimes have specialized dictionaries, for example Business Arabic, and letter writing guides, and so on, those are nice to have. Check out Peterson's Guide to Colleges, or another such guide, find out the nearest college offering your target language, and ASK what they use. You don't get what you don't ask for. 6. ECOLOGY Find out as much as you can about the culture of your target language. For example, you can say in English, "Excuse me". In French, "Excusez moi" can be very rude, they say it another way. You need the cultural "context". You wouldn't say someone runs down the stairs, in French, they descend the stairs "in running", "en courant". In Spanish, your feet don't hurt, your "shoes pinch your toes". In Farsi, you aren't married, you're "enfamilied". If you learn to think in wrong English, a mirror to your language, it will be easier.
7. JUST DO IT
I read many books on chipping flint to make arrowheads. I read pages and pages of theory. It was really complicated. Then someone showed me how to do it- he took 2 minutes, and I understood the process, and DID IT. I couldn't carve a beautiful Clovis point right away, but I could chip out an arrowhead. The moral is, JUST DO IT. Have you ever watched a weasel walk? Or even a cat? That is energy in motion. The Weasel, or Cat, doesn't think, doesn't read, doesn't make excuses or play games like humans, it just does.
Olympic athletes talk about the "zone" of performance, where the only existence is in doing. The Japanese have called this "no- mind". Some performers talk about a "Stage self", almost a higher or larger self, that operates them when they perform. Some craftspeople and musicians talk about becoming one with the task or music, of the task or music expressing as them. Some public speakers note that they ask the Universe, or God, or whatever, to speak through them to say whatever the audience most needs to hear, and "something" takes over, and they give speeches beyond their abilities. You have a unique purpose and energy. No one else can take responsibility for what you must do.
You can do this with language! Fred Alan Wolf talks in one of his books about getting into the French "zone"; all of a sudden, he was there, and he could speak French effortlessly. French folks knew he was a foreigner, but they couldn't say from where. It exists.
Take care of the little things, and the big things take care of themselves. If you addictively learn the small points early on, the little grammar points the other students are too lazy to pick up on, it gets so much easier later. Somehow, in a way you can only experience to know, something "kicks in", it's like painting a face, when you add just the right detail, somehow the painting becomes "alive". Real education has always been mostly self-trained. Schools train sheep, not stallions. Boredom only comes to those who aren't in alignment with what they want. Successful people share only one characteristic: they were all persistent.
8. HAVE FUN WITH IT I was on a bus once, with a native speaker of my language. He had no idea who I was. I turned, and said, "Hello, guy, how are you", in his language. He looked at me as if I'd fallen from the sky. It was great. I was on a bus once to North Carolina from Washington DC, I couldnt' sleep, it was 1 AM, and the guy next to me on the bus was... an Afghan! I spoke to him in Dari. He had fascinating stories to tell. When he was a boy, they had storytellers to come to the house on Friday, the Muslim sabbath, to tell stories in return for a good meal. They always had a cliffhanger ending, so they could come back the following evening and get another meal. A Thousand and One Nights has that much more life for me. There are things you can learn from other folks you can't get anywhere else. People are fun, and interesting. Speak their language, and you'll learn a lot of fun stuff.
9. OTHER THOUGHTS
People like material with emotional content, expecially in the context of a story. One can look at newspapers like the Enquirer, for example. Jay Leno did a fascinating show where he quizzed people on world events, and most people knew nothing on them; then he quizzed them on popular sitcoms, and they knew almost every answer. I'm not judging this, only making an observation. The best education is entertaining.
Storytelling is a "holistic" way of getting info across. When I was in the 7th grade, 3/4 of the students in the class KNEW how many times one should chew one's food before swallowing- because they'd seen that episode of Gomer Pyle, USMC. Primitive cultures use storytelling in all education, because they know the lessons will stick. Tamarack Song's book "Journey to the Ancestral Self" gets into this. B'rer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, for example, is a powerful African Teaching Story on the power and danger of resentment.
Life imitates Art- or, Art is at least a form of fantasy wish fulfillment. Hollywood used to be called the "Dream Factory" in the 30's, because people could escape painful reality for a short time. Wish fulfillment is big business. "Fictional characters can be more real than real people"- perhaps because they reflect the archetypes of the deep inner mind, the visceral level of existence.
"Murder She Wrote", my mother's favorite program, by way, has a niche audience of older women- and oddly enough, the main character is remarkably bright, and the men she's around incredibly stupid. Interesting. Consider the prejudices being reinforced, the dreams lived out from a distance. I remember reading about an American woman, in India, embarassed because her hosts watched "Dallas" after something from the Mahabharata. Her hosts said, "Oh no, it is just stories, about people, just like the Mahabharata", implying that they enjoyed Dallas just as much. People I knew in college, loved copying Warner Brothers cartoon characters, or Peewee Herman's laugh... I wonder what a similar fun program with useful technical info might look like...
I WISH WE HAD SOAP OPERAS in a number of languages on cable, or via Internet, or in some communicable form, as part of language instruction. Cultural archetypes are a great way to learn a culture. One needs an imaginary community, working in a pastiche of real events, just the way novelists do.
Education consists of the repetitive revelation of the obvious to the unaware. It's more interesting with conflict and real people.
Other people have had this idea with other things, as noted below.
------------------------------------------ From: Charles A Smith <ca[deleted]u.edu>
I've been hard at work designing a new 3-credit course to be conducted entirely over the World Wide Web (on Parent-child Relationships, grad & undergrad credit). A very important part of this course will be a "story wraparound." When they begin the course, students will find themselves in a fictional rural community called Butterberry Hill. As they move through Butterberry Hill, they will meet and interact with characters who will challenge them to think about children, parent-child relationships, and community investment. I am currently trying to assemble a group of web-based storytellers to contribute to the shared story.
You can see how the course is set up at:
http://www.ksu.edu/wwparent/course/home.htm
You can see a FAQ for contributing to the Butterberry Hill story at:
http://www.ksu.edu/wwparent/course/faq-stor.htm
If you would like to exersize a little of your own storytelling creativity and contribute a character to Butterberry Hill, check out the FAQ and then ask me for the URL address to the story so you can check out what I've done so far. At the moment, BBH IS CLOSED TO GENERAL PUBLIC INSPECTION until it's ready for everyone to visit.
I would like you and anyone else to "get your feet wet" by doing a little creative writing. You could certainly link to BBH from the FamResiliency page (some components will be open only to students taking the course). I'd also like to ask y'all for help in letting potential students know about this course. It's really tailored for community-based parent educators like our county agents.
Chuck Smith Kansas State University ca[deleted]edu
--------------------------------- From: martin Butcher <1[mailto:deleted]@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Sitcoms ------------------------------- Message Contents I recall that at the end of WW2 the UK Govt. wanted a medium to inform the farming community of the country about changes in agricultural techniques. The good officers saw the problem where it was one thing to have an agricultural extension worker advise what were then isolated family farmers on new developments and techniques, but hard core information required a social setting to be digestible. The answer was the daily radio sitcom 'The Archers' centering on a family farm. The programme lasted about 45 yrs, I believe recently being axed as part of cost cutting measures. My understanding is that it was considered not just very popular, but extremely successful in its original goal.
Martin
10. MEDICINE STORY [address: c/o Story Stone/Another Place, Rt. 123, Greenville, NH 03048, tapes available]
Manitonquat, "Medicine Story", is a Wampanoag [Native American Tribal Nation] elder, storyteller, and seminar leader. One of his stories is of dolphins, a favorite animal of his coastal tribal nation. It seems there was a huge shark terrifying the people. One of the tribal elders went to the dolphins, and said he knew they were very intelligent, and that they could figure out a solution to the shark, but that he didn't and couldn't know what it was. The dolphins formed a council circle, and each spoke in turn. The first said that they lacked the education and training to take on the shark. The second wasn't sure exactly what they should be doing; they weren't trained warriors, and couldn't take on such a big fish. The third said that they were smart, and so could figure out an answer. The fourth said, "Oh, I know, listen, what we're good at is playing. What do you say we play the shark to death? Or at least drive him nuts?" They all agreed it was a good plan. And that's just what they did. They crowded round the shark, and started turning cartwheels, jumping and diving. The shark was very serious, and tried to swim away quickly, but the dolphins were too fast, and kept up with him. One would bite his tail, and when the shark turned to get him, two more dolphins would swim in and poke the shark with their dorsal fins. The shark was driven to distraction, and eventually dived so deep the dolphins couldn't follow, and went away and never returned. It is so to this day- if you see dolphins playing in the water, you may be sure no sharks are about, as the dolphins will drive them away. He said that when the creator created things, he put fun as a marker to the important things to do in life.
He cited Mother Theresa, who on a visit to this country, said that people weren't starving for food, but that they were starving for love. In the Native American world view, generally, ideal human interaction occurs on the model of a circle. What goes around comes around, you attract what you are, the cycle of the seasons, from Spring growth to Summer heat to Autumn reflection to Winter hibernation, all of this is summed up in the circle. The circle of the fireplace, the drum, a dwelling, the horizon, the power of the world comes from circles, as Black Elk said. Reciprocity, the long spoon story [In this story, a man goes to hell, and notices that no-one can eat, because they have extremely long spoons, and instead they fight with the spoons; he goes to heaven, where they have the same spoons - and people FEED EACH OTHER] Reverend Ike's "you can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead", all of this and much more is evoked by the circle. Councils occur in a circle, and in a circle, one can see everyone's eyes, and all are equal. In Chinese Feng Shui, or design theory, straight lines are regarded as somewhat dangerous, and meanders and circles as good.
Where does your sense of Self stop? For many Americans, the sense of Self stops at the skin. This is a very peculiar idea, one that many people in the world today would find very strange. A community is a circle of people who have a sense of self beyond their skin, where people communicate and work together on goals for their common good. Community is for humans what the hive is for bees. It might be people who share the same place, or people who are related, or people who share the same interests. Isn't "Community" self the web of the small, seemingly unimportant things- perhaps little courtesies, or favors, looking out for others, a smile or a wave to people on the street, and all the other things people used to do without thinking?
Cooperation is what makes human beings what they are. It was noted that competition tends to make people stupid, and cited some political speeches, among other things, as supporting evidence. A nurturing, healthy community is a circle, even a basket, held together by mutual trust, respect, and interdependence. Corporations and similar organizations are pyramids, or triangles, with clearly defined, even sharp, edges.
Manitonquat also does programs in prisons. For him, prisons are the refined essence of our society. He's very patient. The one statement that will make him bridle, though, is when someone says he has to earn their respect. He says, "No, we have to start over. Everyone has a RIGHT to respect. Respect is the center of the circle of life. You can't expect people to love others, but you can reasonable expect them to respect others. Respect doesn't mean agreement, it means simply regarding other people as the sacred, precious, intelligent beings in search of joy, freedom, peace, and play they are. Respect may mean making eye contact, which is remarkably rare in American society, and normally an open challenge to a fight in a prison. Manitonquat cited prisoners in his groups that said that his circle was the only place in their lives where they felt like a human being, where they got respect.
In India, people greet each other, or at least the elderly, by placing their palms together, and saying "Namaste'". One could translate this as "I recognize and salute the divinity in you". The maxim "What you concentrate on grows" shows the power of this idea.
He says the following. Babies spend 9 months in a very comfortable place, and come out naturally full of love. They come out of the lodge, and find that people are... wierd. Nowadays we might say that they have their own difficulties to work out, but babies don't know this, so they start to grow a mask, to survive. We all have masks. We could think of relationships, where 2 masks meet, and in time gradually let the real selves through, and sometimes things don't work out so well, as the mask and real self aren't necessarily in harmony. Your public mask is the self that goes on your resume'.
Then there's a less crystallized mask, the mask you wear with your friends. Then there are deeper parts. There's a master craftsman part, a "Shakespeare" part, which has the seeds of greatness. Perhaps there's a "shadow" part, of repressed hopes and fears. Perhaps there's an "inner child" part. And perhaps there's a part so invisible that when you do something totally out of character, you say, "Where did that come from?" and you aren't sure.
Stress is a natural part of life. Stress energy builds up inside, swallowed up into the inner landscape, the inner life. Men sometimes build up resentment energy in their chests, for years, and perhaps it leads to heart attacks, for energy built up must always find release. A circle of people can be a very powerful way to release stress energy. One can think of Alcoholics Anonymous, and similar groups. The smallest number to form a circle with is two. If one is allowed to unload built up poisons from inside, to hear that "it's ok to make mistakes, you did the best you could with what you had at the time", one can get rid of masking layers, and get down to one's real essence.
You could have an agreement with a friend, that you get to talk for, say, ten minutes, and they listen attentively, and don't interrupt. Then, after ten minutes, you reverse, and they get to speak. He recommended that one choose success stories, issues that "have juice", something that "rings your buzzer", something that looks like it needs attention, as those are markers for important issues. You might think about what your real nature is, what your purpose is, to see the story you tell in this exercise as a lens to define, perhaps, your place in the universe. It is not spiritual to say that we are made of stardust- it is literally true. Manitonquat notes that some have been hurt more than others, and thus have more layers to go through to their core being. He felt that he could get through to the humanity of the worst serial killer, with this exercise, given the time. He noted that none of the prisoners he dealt with had come from good homes, that all had been subject to severe control, and pain, and had gone from foster home to foster home to adult life often without a friend they could trust, much less a healthy family. This exercise is truly a "Medicine Story" exercise. ["Medicine" referred to whatever made people whole. In English, whole, healthy, and hale all come from the same root. Thus, "Medicine" is whatever makes us whole, and a "Medicine man/woman" is one who offers whatever is necessary to make people whole. Regrettably, a better word is simply not available in English.]
I heard once in that the military was the concentrated essence of America- that it somehow combined small town America with Alice in Wonderland and Franz Kafka. Is it not also the essence of competition, of the adversarial approach? I've heard lawyers where I work say that the best legal solution is one where no-one is happy. Is that any way to run a society? No-one wins in a war.
RESOURCES
America has experienced an incredible revival of traditional storytelling. Local groups can sometimes be found through your library, arts council, or nearest college. The following list is by no means complete.
NATIONAL
National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling POB 309 Jonesboro, TN 37659-0309
National Story League 3508 Russell Apt. 6, St. Louis, MO 63104
Association of Black Storytellers, POB 27456, Philadelphia, PA 19118-7456
lnternational Network of Biblical Storytellers 181O Harvard Boulevard, Dayton, OH 45406
[SPECIALIZED] NGH, P.O. Box 308, Merrimack, NH 03054-0308 (603) 429-9438 annual conference: August
SCHEDULED GATHERINGS OF STORYTELLERS
All Native American Powwows seem to have some storytelling component, and the Native Americans are some of the best in the business. Check out your public library, or the events section of your newspaper, for events happening near you, or contact the organizations cited as follows.
Specialized storytelling books I like
Journey to the Ancestral Self Song, Tamarack. Station Hill Press, 1994.
MIND GAMES, The Guide to Inner Space. Masters, Robert, and Houston, Jean. New York: Dorset Press, 1972.
My Voice will go with you: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson. Rosen, Sidney. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1982. For therapeutic storytelling.
Zen in the Martial Arts. Hyams, Joe. Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher,Inc., 1979.
ONE BOOKSTORE DEVOTED SOLELY TO STORYTELLING RESOURCES IS: Yellow Moon Press POB 1316 Cambridge, MA 02238-1316 (617) 776 2230
PUBLISHERS OF TAPES INCLUDE: August House POB 3223 Little Rock, AR 72203-3223 1 800 AUGUST House [800 284 8784]