Copy The Little Children
In yesterday’s article I advised people who are trying to learn Cantonese to become like a child again. Those little buggers know how to pick up languages all right! First they say “da da da, ba ba ba” for a while, testing the equipment as it were, and then they plunge right into it.
If they see for example a ball and know what it is, they will then tell you that it’s a ball. “Ball. Ball. Ball. Ball. Ball. Mommy! Ball. Ball.” etc until you’re ready to down a double gin and tonic without tonic. (Ball: 球 kau, or 波 bo)
What they are doing is forcing new neurone paths in their virgin brains. And biology knows that this is best done through repetition. The first “Ball.” sends out a delicate, hesitating little feeler, which grows thicker and sturdier each time they repeat the word, until it’s a strong and solid neurone path and they’ll know the word ‘ball’ for the rest of their lives.
So why don’t we adults learn languages as easily as children do? We could, if we employed the same methods as they instinctively do. But by this time we’re adults and know better. We know it’s embarrassing not to master something 100% at once.
I said yesterday that the thing I hear most often from new students is “I’m crap at languages”. The second most common thing is “I don’t want to make a fool of myself”, alternatively (for the more extrovert) “I’m not afraid to make a fool of myself.”
But I wonder: How can trying to learn a new thing possibly be described as making a fool of yourself? If a foreigner in your country is trying to learn your language, do you laugh at him and call him fool? Of course not. So why do you feel you yourself are being a fool?
More tomorrow! I’m really warming to my theme here. Exercise: Next time you’re in a bar, point to all the bottles one by one and say 啤酒!(beh jau – beer). After 20 times it will have entered into your long-term memory. Then you move on to a new drink! You’ll be fluent by midnight. That’s the beauty of adult language learning. You can be like a child again – with beer.