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| Language Learning through the lens of children. |
As I've said before, I began learning Japanese completely by accident ... I learned katakana in order to be able to have fun with vocaloid software, yet the first time I googled images of downtown Tokyo and was able to identify an electronics shop sign saying ソニー (Sony) was an incredible moment for me. It's still a thrill when I watch a J-Doroma and can identify shop signs ... とふ (Tofu ... on Aya's family tofu shop in One Litre of Tears) ... ミツビシ (Mitsubishi - on the back of the mechanic's overalls in Mou Ichido Kimi ni Propose) ... each time I can read something that I wouldn't be able to read if I hadn't learned the kana, I get so much joy from knowing that if I hadn't acquired this skill, I'm getting just a little more insight into things than I would do if I hadn't bothered.
Anyway, I didn't begin learning by speaking from the very beginning. In hindsight, now that I've listened to Benny Lewis and other people with a great deal more experience at learning languages than myself. I really wish I had begun learning a language by speaking the language from the very start. But I didn't ... and I can't roll the clock back either ... but I can at least take what I've learned and apply to the next language I learn (I'm thinking Japanese sign language next time). So why didn't I interact with other people at the very beginning? ... it seems so obvious to me now, that it wasn't the fear of speaking to native speakers which put me off (my travels have at least taught me that the effort to attempt speaking the native language is pretty much always appreciated by the locals ... and often results in getting to experience something you might not have experienced otherwise) ... but I certainly feared being around other people learning language ... why?
Well, I've been thinking about that ... it's really surprised me on the +1 Challenge that everyone else has been so encouraging. That's not what my language learning experience was like at school ... my French teacher was battling with a group of 30 eleven year old boys who were forced to learn French or German against their will ... I think we mostly opted for French because we were interested in buying flick knives and cheap wine on the day trip to Boulogne (pronounced Ba-log-nya by everyone I ever met except the French teacher who spoke all poetically and Frenchylike). There wasn't the option to learn Japanese. I might well have learned Japanese at the age of 11 if it had been an option ... but who knows ... I was really into Star Wars and wasn't interested in much other than Star Wars back then!
Have you ever played an online game? I have ... I played Call of Duty on the PS3 online ... I didn't play for long though because everyone else online was either far more skilled than me or as I like to think, perhaps they just have better internet connections and can react faster than I could ... the point being ... I'd last about ten seconds max before someone would shoot me in the head ... and there's only so many times you can be bothered to play when you keep being shot the whole time. I played against the computer a bit more thinking I would skill up so that I could last longer playing against other people ... but nope, I still got shot in the head just as much as before ... so I didn't bother playing online.
The equivalent in language learning I suppose is when you meet other people learning the same target language and they discourage you about learning the language. It happened to me about six months ago at a Japanese event I attended ... I met a person who told that learning Japanese would take me many years. I thought to myself, "Well, I've been learning for about a year ... this person said they'd been learning for five years" so when a Japanese person came up and said something I couldn't understand. I sensed the joy of the person who had been telling me how learning Japanese takes years and years because, after all those years, he could understand something that I couldn't ... and boy did he seem to enjoy talking away in Japanese for next few minutes whilst I just looked on awkwardly wanting to throw in a 「猫がすきです」 (I like cats) or something to at least feel like I could say something Japanese and therefore have just as much right to be attending this Japanese event as anyone else. Anyway, as this guy carried on talking I started to sense that the Japanese person was feeling just as awkward as myself in a situation where this guy was banging on what I thought might have been Japanese ... but could have been Klingon for all I knew. Anyway, so when he finished, I seized my opportunity to say, 「猫がすきです」and the Japanese person became very interested in speaking to me. I then bought a beer, but instead of pronouncing "Asahi" as it should be pronounced, and how I usually would pronounce it correctly, the word just came out as "Arsey" ... everyone around me laughed and it became the source of much amusement for the rest of the night with people taking the piss out of the fact I couldn't even pronounce Asahi ... only then this Japanese person who'd taken an interest in my sophisticated conversational announcement regarding my liking of cats turned to the barman and asked for a bottle of "Arsey" and when we both had our bottles, we chinked our bottles with a 「乾杯」 (cheers) ... and I felt for just a moment like I really understood what was the most important thing in learning a language ... period ... just have fun ... whatever your level of ability is in a foreign language.
Anyway, why am I regaling this story. Well, as much as I could be using the time to be going hard at the Japanese study etc ... this morning I saw the picture that a friend of mine had posted on Facebook (the picture at the top of this post) and also the words his son spoke whilst talking about flashbangs, " you see us kids are so curious & imaginative I want to try out lots of things with these. You won't understand as an adult because all you adults do is talk nonsense and try to grow up, you miss the fun stuff".
Wise words I think you'll agree ... certainly answers one of the questions I've asked myself recently ... given that everyone on the +1 Challenge has been so encouraging ... why have I always avoided other language learners in the past ... I guess it's because, as my friends son said, "adults talk nonsense and try and grow up, you miss the fun stuff".
I got my TEFL certificate for "Teaching Younger Learners" this morning ... however, I feel more humbled at the fact, that if anything, it is children who teach us the important lessons ... we're just here as evidence that the more sophisticated we become with our methodologies, the less fun we make it for ourselves.
So my lesson this week ... play ... play ... play ... I do have a tendency to analyse everything a lot ... I think having a plan is very important ... certainly, without one, I just potter around learning Japanese and don't make anything like the progress I've made during this challenge. I've drifted into a period where I was exhausted a couple of weeks ago ... put myself back on course with just resting up a little and making sure everything I planned for the week would be fun ... and its been a good week. As I continue with the challenge, I hope my face is more like the one below (taken during a Skype lesson with an italki tutor) ... that's what it's all about.
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| "Yes I do believe I might be having fun" - Bic Runga, Get Some Sleep |
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