Bryan Murphy's Blog, page 10
May 2, 2013
Murphy's Laws
2 May 2013
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Postscript
First, to re-capitulate: the Ten Steps.
Failing completely to learn a foreign language need not be an impossible task, especially for adults. Close adherence to the following ten precepts will give anyone a good chance of succeeding in failing:
*** 1. Opt to stay mono-lingual
*** 2. Choose a hard language to learn
*** 3. Grow as old as you can before you start to learn it
*** 4. Minimise your motivation
*** 5. Develop avoidance strategies
*** 6. Limit input
*** 7. Avoid instruction
*** 8. Develop coping strategies
*** 9. Do not persevere
*** 10. Get the hell out
Now, the Postscript.
I almost succeeded in following these precepts and failing totally to learn Thai, but fell at the first and last hurdles, as well as brushing most of the others.
It was number 10 that flattened me.
After 2 grisly months in Bangkok, I retired, found myself an island, and started to have a good time.
Some language-learning ensued.
A month later, unfortunately, I had to return to England, for family reasons. Nevertheless, I hope some day to go back to Thailand, overturn as many of these precepts as I can, and achieve, at least, basic communicative competence in Thai.
Meanwhile, I'm off to Sofia to have another crack at Bulgarian.
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Postscript
First, to re-capitulate: the Ten Steps.
Failing completely to learn a foreign language need not be an impossible task, especially for adults. Close adherence to the following ten precepts will give anyone a good chance of succeeding in failing:
*** 1. Opt to stay mono-lingual
*** 2. Choose a hard language to learn
*** 3. Grow as old as you can before you start to learn it
*** 4. Minimise your motivation
*** 5. Develop avoidance strategies
*** 6. Limit input
*** 7. Avoid instruction
*** 8. Develop coping strategies
*** 9. Do not persevere
*** 10. Get the hell out
Now, the Postscript.
I almost succeeded in following these precepts and failing totally to learn Thai, but fell at the first and last hurdles, as well as brushing most of the others.
It was number 10 that flattened me.
After 2 grisly months in Bangkok, I retired, found myself an island, and started to have a good time.
Some language-learning ensued.
A month later, unfortunately, I had to return to England, for family reasons. Nevertheless, I hope some day to go back to Thailand, overturn as many of these precepts as I can, and achieve, at least, basic communicative competence in Thai.
Meanwhile, I'm off to Sofia to have another crack at Bulgarian.
April 19, 2013
High-fallutin'
Yesterday, I was Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. Though only for a matter of minutes. At an audition.
April 12, 2013
Murphy's Laws
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 10. Get the hell out
Before you start having a good time.
Learning nothing of the language will, of course, help you not to have a good time.
If you are serious about not learning Thai, for example, do not leave Bangkok unless you also leave the country. Once you’re outside the capital, it is almost impossible not to enjoy yourself, and this would force your motivation up.
And only buy souvenirs for other people, not for yourself; otherwise, once you've left, you might find yourself surrounded by items which remind you what a fascinating place Thailand is, and tempt you to go back there and jeopardise your good work so far.
Don't go back.
[Still to come: Postscript]
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 10. Get the hell out
Before you start having a good time.
Learning nothing of the language will, of course, help you not to have a good time.
If you are serious about not learning Thai, for example, do not leave Bangkok unless you also leave the country. Once you’re outside the capital, it is almost impossible not to enjoy yourself, and this would force your motivation up.
And only buy souvenirs for other people, not for yourself; otherwise, once you've left, you might find yourself surrounded by items which remind you what a fascinating place Thailand is, and tempt you to go back there and jeopardise your good work so far.
Don't go back.
[Still to come: Postscript]
April 5, 2013
Background to Heresy
I cannot offer an unbiased review of my own work, so I’ll try to “add value” with some background.
This was a classic “manuscript left in a drawer” for decades. It wasn’t even one of my drawers. Recently, an old friend came over to visit from England and brought this and another one I’d forgotten I’d ever written. It seemed a bit dated, but there was a spark there, so I rewrote it into its present form. Among other things, I relabelled it from “Cod’s Roe” and clothed it in the fashionable historic present.
I inserted the expression “arithmetical democracy”, although I first heard it later, from the mouth of Alvaro Cunhal, head of Portugal’s Communists, who used it disparagingly to explain why his party should run the country even though relatively few people voted for it. I guess he favoured the kind of “emotional democracy” practised in “Heresy”, not that it would have got him into power anyway.
My story is a child of its time, though the the notion of diet replacing politics as the focus of identity was ahead of its time. In Italy, where I’m living today, the infusion of technology into politics has become fashionable, and politics are becoming ever more emotional.
Back in 1971, I was an out-of-work new graduate. One day, I went to the unemployment office to sign on, and they offered me a job there. I took it like a shot. In “Heresy”, I have a little fun with the strange rituals of bureaucratic life, above all the idea that conformity and orthodoxy are the supreme virtues.
All in all, I think “Heresy” is humorous, thought-provoking and short enough to be well worth the time you’ll spend reading it. Let me give it five stars to encourage the young writer I was then.
This was a classic “manuscript left in a drawer” for decades. It wasn’t even one of my drawers. Recently, an old friend came over to visit from England and brought this and another one I’d forgotten I’d ever written. It seemed a bit dated, but there was a spark there, so I rewrote it into its present form. Among other things, I relabelled it from “Cod’s Roe” and clothed it in the fashionable historic present.
I inserted the expression “arithmetical democracy”, although I first heard it later, from the mouth of Alvaro Cunhal, head of Portugal’s Communists, who used it disparagingly to explain why his party should run the country even though relatively few people voted for it. I guess he favoured the kind of “emotional democracy” practised in “Heresy”, not that it would have got him into power anyway.
My story is a child of its time, though the the notion of diet replacing politics as the focus of identity was ahead of its time. In Italy, where I’m living today, the infusion of technology into politics has become fashionable, and politics are becoming ever more emotional.
Back in 1971, I was an out-of-work new graduate. One day, I went to the unemployment office to sign on, and they offered me a job there. I took it like a shot. In “Heresy”, I have a little fun with the strange rituals of bureaucratic life, above all the idea that conformity and orthodoxy are the supreme virtues.
All in all, I think “Heresy” is humorous, thought-provoking and short enough to be well worth the time you’ll spend reading it. Let me give it five stars to encourage the young writer I was then.
April 2, 2013
Murphy's Laws
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 9. Do not persevere
Be influenced by this article.
Rosenthal and Rubin (1978) showed the strong impact that one’s own and other people’s expectations can have on learning.
So expect to fail, and let other people know you expect to fail.
When you have a frustrating experience, take it to heart.
My experience has brought home to me the fact that motivation is dynamic, not static. When it ebbs, let it go.
In the last resort: [see step 10]
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 9. Do not persevere
Be influenced by this article.
Rosenthal and Rubin (1978) showed the strong impact that one’s own and other people’s expectations can have on learning.
So expect to fail, and let other people know you expect to fail.
When you have a frustrating experience, take it to heart.
My experience has brought home to me the fact that motivation is dynamic, not static. When it ebbs, let it go.
In the last resort: [see step 10]
March 20, 2013
Murphy's Laws
20 March 2013
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 8. Develop coping strategies
If, in spite of yourself, you start to take in something of the language you’re trying not to learn, make sure you speak a pidgin version of it rather than the real thing.
Try and get the people you talk with to use a pidginised version, too.
This insistence on "foreigner talk" will cut down on genuine target language input and will help set your errors in stone.
Feign understanding.
Many languages have stock expressions for indicating that you understand, empathise and wish the speaker to continue uninterrupted. Develop such stock responses in order to preclude real conversation.
Try, if you must, to understand the meaning of what you hear or read, but without paying attention to its form. Understanding does not mean you can use what you understand.
Learn basic paralinguistic features of the target language. Gestures have been claimed to incorporate a whole semiotic system. Learning foreign gestures need not involve foreign language input, and indeed can greatly help you to avoid it.
Finally, use every opportunity to switch to your own language.
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 8. Develop coping strategies
If, in spite of yourself, you start to take in something of the language you’re trying not to learn, make sure you speak a pidgin version of it rather than the real thing.
Try and get the people you talk with to use a pidginised version, too.
This insistence on "foreigner talk" will cut down on genuine target language input and will help set your errors in stone.
Feign understanding.
Many languages have stock expressions for indicating that you understand, empathise and wish the speaker to continue uninterrupted. Develop such stock responses in order to preclude real conversation.
Try, if you must, to understand the meaning of what you hear or read, but without paying attention to its form. Understanding does not mean you can use what you understand.
Learn basic paralinguistic features of the target language. Gestures have been claimed to incorporate a whole semiotic system. Learning foreign gestures need not involve foreign language input, and indeed can greatly help you to avoid it.
Finally, use every opportunity to switch to your own language.
March 15, 2013
Heresy
Heresy hits the Internet! Please go here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view... and take a look at my new speculative fiction e-book. It is short, free and thought-provoking. I hope you will download a copy, read it and, if you like it, “like” it and recommend it both by word of mouth and by word of mouse.
March 12, 2013
Murphy's Laws
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 7. Avoid instruction
After an interim of strange doubt, the value of foreign language teaching to foreign language learning has been re-established.
Accordingly, it is best avoided; particularly if you are by nature analytical or enjoy the role of disciple.
If you feel compelled to go through the motions, select a teacher who will talk to you in the literary version of the language or give you false information about it in your own language.
Ideally, choose a teacher whose personality clashes with yours, who is unreliable about showing up, and whom you pay either little or nothing (so that you will not be determined to get your money’s worth.)
Make the arrangement as informal as possible, so that you do not have fixed, definite times for study, and so that you can cancel frequently.
Translate and be damned. Formulate everything you want to say in your own language first, and translate it badly, i.e. word for word and with scant regard for context.
Insist on having as much of the target language you encounter as possible translated (badly) for you.
Target language videos, discs and tapes are best avoided, but if you do have such things, do not use them to practise the things that parroting can help you with, like phonemes, tones and formulaic language (set phrases); use them instead to try and analyse the language.
Use books to practise reading aloud: unless you intend to be a news-reader, this is a fairly useless, excessively difficult exercise - it is hard enough to do it well in one’s own language, and trying it in a foreign language is an excellent recipe for failure.
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 7. Avoid instruction
After an interim of strange doubt, the value of foreign language teaching to foreign language learning has been re-established.
Accordingly, it is best avoided; particularly if you are by nature analytical or enjoy the role of disciple.
If you feel compelled to go through the motions, select a teacher who will talk to you in the literary version of the language or give you false information about it in your own language.
Ideally, choose a teacher whose personality clashes with yours, who is unreliable about showing up, and whom you pay either little or nothing (so that you will not be determined to get your money’s worth.)
Make the arrangement as informal as possible, so that you do not have fixed, definite times for study, and so that you can cancel frequently.
Translate and be damned. Formulate everything you want to say in your own language first, and translate it badly, i.e. word for word and with scant regard for context.
Insist on having as much of the target language you encounter as possible translated (badly) for you.
Target language videos, discs and tapes are best avoided, but if you do have such things, do not use them to practise the things that parroting can help you with, like phonemes, tones and formulaic language (set phrases); use them instead to try and analyse the language.
Use books to practise reading aloud: unless you intend to be a news-reader, this is a fairly useless, excessively difficult exercise - it is hard enough to do it well in one’s own language, and trying it in a foreign language is an excellent recipe for failure.
March 5, 2013
Murphy's Laws
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 6. Limit input
In addition to what you learned in Step 5, avoid radio and TV in the target language.
The Internet and cable or satellite TV can keep you informed and entertained in your own language.
If you make the mistake of watching your favourite programmes dubbed into the local language, your knowledge of programmme format will make situations easy to predict; this will help you to guess the meaning of the language, which, unfortunately, might cause you to learn some of it.
Be canny: for instance, English football fans in Thailand could watch live Premiership matches on Indonesian TV, so that the language and language awareness they pick up would not be Thai.
Read a good deal, but only in your own language. Bangkok, astonishingly, has three English-language daily newspapers, as well as English-language libraries and bookshops.
Talk shop while socialising. This will prevent the people you talk to from giving you information about the target language and culture.
If you must talk about such things, try and do it only with people whose language awareness is low.
Try to hang out with people who, if they are aware of the local culture, do not like it.
This will further help to keep your integrative motivation usefully low, always providing you can stand such people.
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 6. Limit input
In addition to what you learned in Step 5, avoid radio and TV in the target language.
The Internet and cable or satellite TV can keep you informed and entertained in your own language.
If you make the mistake of watching your favourite programmes dubbed into the local language, your knowledge of programmme format will make situations easy to predict; this will help you to guess the meaning of the language, which, unfortunately, might cause you to learn some of it.
Be canny: for instance, English football fans in Thailand could watch live Premiership matches on Indonesian TV, so that the language and language awareness they pick up would not be Thai.
Read a good deal, but only in your own language. Bangkok, astonishingly, has three English-language daily newspapers, as well as English-language libraries and bookshops.
Talk shop while socialising. This will prevent the people you talk to from giving you information about the target language and culture.
If you must talk about such things, try and do it only with people whose language awareness is low.
Try to hang out with people who, if they are aware of the local culture, do not like it.
This will further help to keep your integrative motivation usefully low, always providing you can stand such people.
February 26, 2013
Murphy's Laws
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 5. Develop avoidance strategies
Reduce your need to use the foreign language.
Get a job in which you use your own language all day (such as teaching it or writing it), preferably one in which you are surrounded by fellow speakers and/or by local people who are happy to speak your language and expect you to do so, too.
If you're in business, get your company to hire a competent interpreter for you.
Make sure you live with, or close to, speakers of your own language.
Socialise with people who speak your language and are happy to do so.
Shop in supermarkets, where silent transactions suffice. Eat at home or in self-service places or places which cater for tourists and their strange languages.
Do not initiate exchanges in the target language.
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 5. Develop avoidance strategies
Reduce your need to use the foreign language.
Get a job in which you use your own language all day (such as teaching it or writing it), preferably one in which you are surrounded by fellow speakers and/or by local people who are happy to speak your language and expect you to do so, too.
If you're in business, get your company to hire a competent interpreter for you.
Make sure you live with, or close to, speakers of your own language.
Socialise with people who speak your language and are happy to do so.
Shop in supermarkets, where silent transactions suffice. Eat at home or in self-service places or places which cater for tourists and their strange languages.
Do not initiate exchanges in the target language.
