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Polyglot: How I Learn Languages
Kató Lomb (1909-2003) was one of the great polyglots of the 20th century. A translator and one of the first simultaneous interpreters in the world, Lomb worked in 16 languages for state and business concerns in her native Hungary. She achieved further fame by writing books on languages, interpreting, and polyglots.
Polyglot: How I Learn Languages, first published in 1970, is a collection of anecdotes and reflections on language learning. Because Dr. Lomb learned her languages as an adult, after getting a PhD in chemistry, the methods she used will thus be of particular interest to adult learners who want to master a foreign language.
Polyglot: How I Learn Languages, first published in 1970, is a collection of anecdotes and reflections on language learning. Because Dr. Lomb learned her languages as an adult, after getting a PhD in chemistry, the methods she used will thus be of particular interest to adult learners who want to master a foreign language.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
156 people are currently reading
2589 people want to read
About the author
Kató Lomb
5 books49 followersKató Lomb was a Hungarian interpreter, translator, language genius and one of the first simultaneous interpreters of the world.
Originally she graduated in physics and chemistry, but her interest soon led her to languages. Native in Hungarian, she was able to interpret fluently in nine or ten languages (in four of them even without preparation), and she translated technical literature and read belles-lettres in six languages. She was able to understand journalism in further eleven languages. As she put it, altogether she earned money with sixteen languages (Bulgarian, Chinese, Danish, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Ukrainian). She learned these languages mostly by self-effort, as an autodidact. Her aims to acquire these languages were most of all practical, to satisfy her interest.
According to her own account, her long life was highlighted not primarily by the command of languages but the actual study of them. Through her books, published in Hungarian in several editions as well as in some other languages, interviews (in print and on the air) and conversations, she tried to share this joy with generations.
Originally she graduated in physics and chemistry, but her interest soon led her to languages. Native in Hungarian, she was able to interpret fluently in nine or ten languages (in four of them even without preparation), and she translated technical literature and read belles-lettres in six languages. She was able to understand journalism in further eleven languages. As she put it, altogether she earned money with sixteen languages (Bulgarian, Chinese, Danish, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Ukrainian). She learned these languages mostly by self-effort, as an autodidact. Her aims to acquire these languages were most of all practical, to satisfy her interest.
According to her own account, her long life was highlighted not primarily by the command of languages but the actual study of them. Through her books, published in Hungarian in several editions as well as in some other languages, interviews (in print and on the air) and conversations, she tried to share this joy with generations.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 179 reviews
January 26, 2022
A wonderful must-read for all polyglots, actual and aspiring ones.
Love the book, admire the author!
Love the book, admire the author!
April 6, 2012
It was very refreshing to read Lomb's language-learning tactics. Just about everything else I've read said basically, "Talk, talk, talk, nothing else really matters". As an introvert, this is disheartening, and just plain impossible. But Lomb advocates reading, in addition to speaking, and says that books can be your strongest language-learning tactic. It's how she did it, and she taught herself many languages. It was also inspiring to read that she learned most of her languages in her 30s and 40s.
This was an excellent book, especially since it is available for free online. It's clear that Lomb was not a professional writer, which is fine, and in fact is additionally refreshing since it is clear she is not trying to sell anything. She's just putting across her ideas, and if something else works for you, she says to go for it.
My only complaint is that I would have liked to know how she learned Chinese and Japanese. I can't imagine her book-reading technique would work with character languages. For this reason I have to give the book 4 instead of 5 stars. (Early in the book she says she will describe how she learned Chinese, but she never actually gets to it.)
There are many useful quotes from this book, worthy of being written down and posted in my living space. One of them is, "Boring activities kill motivation." Another is, "Language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly."
This was an excellent book, especially since it is available for free online. It's clear that Lomb was not a professional writer, which is fine, and in fact is additionally refreshing since it is clear she is not trying to sell anything. She's just putting across her ideas, and if something else works for you, she says to go for it.
My only complaint is that I would have liked to know how she learned Chinese and Japanese. I can't imagine her book-reading technique would work with character languages. For this reason I have to give the book 4 instead of 5 stars. (Early in the book she says she will describe how she learned Chinese, but she never actually gets to it.)
There are many useful quotes from this book, worthy of being written down and posted in my living space. One of them is, "Boring activities kill motivation." Another is, "Language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly."
October 16, 2019
This should be titled, "My life as an interpreter". It presents very few ideas on how to better learn a foreign language. If it were possible to pull all that information out it might make up a single chapter.
The vast majority of the book is a series of flashbacks, stories from other people, and references to numerous works of literature and/or their creators. They come so rapidly and with such randomness that it literally made my head hurt. The author referred to learning a language as building a castle, creating connections between the languages as a shoe last, language learners as swimmers, and so on. No two relations were made to complement each other. It's like she intentionally wanted to make each example completely unique.
The primary gist of this book is that language learning requires a lot of time, dedication, and motivation. Thank you Captain Obvious, you have saved the world for another day.
The author's unique take on language learning is that it's not only possible, but to your advantage to take on a language above your level. So she starts learning from scratch at advanced levels skipping intermediate and beginner all together. She claims to have learned whole languages from books without dictionaries, quotes a another author who spent a summer reading a book with no dictionary at hand and in a language he had no training in. She insists that you can work out the common characters and meanings more permanently if you don't have help. "It takes twice as long and leaves 10 times the impression!"
Madness.
The vast majority of the book is a series of flashbacks, stories from other people, and references to numerous works of literature and/or their creators. They come so rapidly and with such randomness that it literally made my head hurt. The author referred to learning a language as building a castle, creating connections between the languages as a shoe last, language learners as swimmers, and so on. No two relations were made to complement each other. It's like she intentionally wanted to make each example completely unique.
The primary gist of this book is that language learning requires a lot of time, dedication, and motivation. Thank you Captain Obvious, you have saved the world for another day.
The author's unique take on language learning is that it's not only possible, but to your advantage to take on a language above your level. So she starts learning from scratch at advanced levels skipping intermediate and beginner all together. She claims to have learned whole languages from books without dictionaries, quotes a another author who spent a summer reading a book with no dictionary at hand and in a language he had no training in. She insists that you can work out the common characters and meanings more permanently if you don't have help. "It takes twice as long and leaves 10 times the impression!"
Madness.
September 8, 2015
"To look it at another way, surely there are many unfortunate people who have needed to undergo multiple stomach surgeries. Yet no one would hand a scalpel over to them and ask them to perform the same surgery they received on another person, simply because they themselves had undergone it so often."
My own thoughts, examples, additions or conclusions are in italics.
-For TLDR, see her ten personal rules.
-Language is the only thing worth knowing badly (or just a little). I wonder if I've seen the paragraph quoted elsewhere and incorrectly attributed it to Barry Farber. Oops, shame on me if so. (Speaking of that, this book is a great choice for the challenge of broadening your horizons and reading authors that aren't cishet white males)
-Interesting how she used "false friends" to mean generalizations, ie words you "create" based on the patterns you know, rather than an incorrect usage or comprehension of the words that do exist (like the well-known examples with embarazado and constipado in Spanish).
-Interference doesn't come only from your native language, but also your first foreign language, maybe especially English. In my experience it can also come from any strong language, particularly from the same family/group.
-False friends exist even with numbers, see billions, milliards etc.
-She was shocked when someone had a car accident and she was told "Esperamos su muerte".
-An Italian beau will not succeed if he flatters a German girl by saying that he finds her calda and morbida (warm and soft), because calda connotes kalt (cold) and morbida connotes morbidität (morbid). Maybe if she's a gothic girl...
-Even if extrapolation has a certain negative impact on the acquirability of a new language, it may be a valuable means for fixing knowledge in our minds, because unfixed knowledge will fly away.
-To fix the knowledge, contrasting is one of the best ways. (she mostly describes contrasting the features of two languages)
-Let's not be angry then with mistakes. Many a valuable thing were born out of them — among other things, the French, Italian, and Spanish languages. All three developed from the vulgar (common) use of Latin.
-It's touching to see Russians described as actual liberators and good people. (My great-grandfather participated in the liberation of Budapest) I loved reading about her experience with my native language. It's also heartbreaking to find out that she first started ignoring the unfamiliar and opaque words out of necessity, as she didn't dare to consult a Russian dictionary.
-Wanderlust!!! Just a few pages in I already wanted to improve my Romanian... and to visit Hungary as well.
-She didn't approve of trying to learn a language only passively.
-There's no easy language. Some are just easier to learn poorly.
-Unfortunately, acquired vocabulary is not like a pretty porcelain figure that once you obtain, you can keep enclosed in a display case for the rest of your life.
-I’ve heard that famous conductors will practice a piece inside out nearly every minute. Then they will put it aside and not touch it before the concert one or two weeks later. They notice that it helps the performance. In language learning, the amount of a language learned while abroad will often not show up until well after arriving home.
-Sign up for classes way above your level, if you take them at all. (At least she did that with Polish when she already spoke Russian. It's certainly true that a beginner class will be boring if you speak a related language when most people don't)
-Repetition is vital.
-We love comfort. Americans are particularly fond of it.
-A complacent brain shows smaller resistance to repetition that drizzles like lukewarm rain than to the requirement of conscious concentration. I suspect that this is what sticks the young in front of our TV screens today. So computer games are clearly better. (What MBTI sees as a Sensing preference is deemed as laziness, choosing the minimal intellectual and physical effort)
-I always buy books in pairs: this increases the chance that at least one will be comprehensible.
-There is as little likelihood of squeezing an adult into the intellectual framework of their childhood as there is into their first pair of pajamas.
-An average adult [presumably learning their first foreign language, or the first after English nowadays] needs to study at least 10-12 hours a week, in her opinion. The proposed solution is to connect language learning with work and/or leisure.
-Persistent attention and self-effort are the preconditions of all successful learning.
-Interesting literally means being inside, within.
-Technical/scientific texts are the richest and the most reliable sources of technical terms (ie, better than dictionaries).
-She advocated self-talk and called it autologue, as opposed to monologue and dialogue.
-Frenchmen are/were too proud to get used to the fact that their language, "once a means of communication between emperors and ambassadors, is now stumbling from the lips of lowbudget tourists".
-It is food for thought that at the Congress of Vienna assembled after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, it was in French that the representatives of the Holy Alliance discussed the methods of eclipsing the French language and culture.
-An uninteresting partner is uninteresting in a foreign language as well.
-Read from the beginning, and read actively. Although more efficient means of learning exist, more accessible and obliging ones do not.
-More energy invested means better efficiency.
-The relationship that develops between you and the knowledge you obtain [through extensive reading] will be much deeper than if you had consulted the dictionary automatically.
-Also, the informality of the threesome means you can learn in a relaxed way without the tenseness and artificiality of the typical foreign language class. Sorry, nowadays this makes me giggle. But yeah, if study in a group, she thinks three is the best size.
-It's a fundamental truth of human nature to seek the pleasant and avoid the unpleasant.
-With some willpower, you can develop the habit of discussing your experiences with yourself in a foreign language. Again, it is only a matter of self-discipline. (I do that too)
-OMG the AJATT concept of linguistic microclimate (vs macroclimate) is borrowed from this book. I didn't realize.
-At first, we should read with a blitheness practically bordering on superficiality; later on, with a conscientiousness close to distrust.
-There is a great advantage to learning a language through written translations rather than conversation. To speak a foreign language is a matter of practice, and mistakes will be made. Unfortunately, it is difficult for intellectually confident people to accept making mistakes. Therefore they may refrain from speaking. As László Németh says, "Those with real knowledge only want to say what they know." In written translations, this problem does not exist; you do not have to display your knowledge spontaneously and you usually have the time and resources to avoid making mistakes.
-I frequently see men reading the easiest pulp fiction, armed with heavy dictionaries. They will read one word in the book and then look it up in the dictionary. No wonder they soon get bored of reading and end up sighing with relief when it is time for the news so they can turn on the TV.
-Who hasn't felt a mild shiver when throwing oneself into the cool waters of a lake? Who hasn't desired to climb back to the sunlit sand? And who hasn't been happy after a minute or two, after getting used to the cold of the water, for resisting the temptation? An interesting foreign language text should help the "swimmer" over the initial aversion and discouragement of reading.
-Language is present in a piece of writing like the sea in a single drop.
however:
-Text is always a woven fabric. You can take a word or phrase out of it but... [it] will only represent the whole as much as a snippet of fabric will represent the bolt of cloth it originated from. The threads interweave and strengthen each other...
-Words always need context. But facial expressions, intonation, gestures also count, and mnemonics create an artificial context.
-I recommend untidy glossaries with all my heart to everyone. Neatly inscribed lines with uniform pearly letters are like desert landscapes. They mix together and make you sleepy; memory has nothing to cling to. We gain firm and steady footholds if we write with different instruments (pen, pencil, or colored pencils) in various styles (slanting, upright, small letters, capital letters, etc). Nowadays computers and digital technologies make it even easier, of course.
-The knowledge you obtain at the expense of some brainwork will be more yours than what you receive ready-made.
-Ideally, learning should stimulate both the intellectual and emotional sphere.
-Vocabulary from easiest to hardest: nouns that refer to objects (house, book), adjectives denoting perceptible properties (colour, size), abstract nouns, verbs expressing specific actions (run, give), verbs expressing a symbolic action (complete, ensure).
-Filler words (quite, instead, though) are difficult because there are no objective concepts attached to them, but they're important.
-Similar words should be "lined up and interrogated at the same time".
-The first thing you should learn is "excuse me". Yet textbooks never teach it from the very beginning. This mirrors my own experience in Germany back in 2005, when I'd had 1.5 years of relatively good German classes. I could say many things but I didn't know how to say excuse me.
-Textbooks suffer from "substantivitis", an excess of nouns. One had triple possessives in every sentence (the thoroughbred riding horse of the poacher of the neighbour's land).
-Language is a tool used for millions of purposes. Its change is natural: it stretches and it wears away, it widens and it shrinks. It loses its regular shape. And it loses its shape where it is touched by the most people: at everyday words. And everyday words are what all language learners must deal with.
-It is easier to understand a technical text than to correctly ask for a glass of water, or tell a good joke.
-A complicated structure? Undoubtedly. But after all, the cathedral of Milan is complicated too, and you still look at it with awe. (One of the best things I've heard about my native language)
-She admired youth slang.
-When doing simultaneous interpreting, she would close her eyes to concentrate. I admit I can't imagine deliberately not watching the person speak when the opportunity is there.
-"My daughter is around halfway at the moment. She knows 1500 words and with 1500 more she'll speak perfect German."
-Kids are not exceptional language learners, they just put in a lot of time.
-A school's way of assessing readiness is typically a poor measure of the personal knowledge the child has acquired in his or her natural environment. Same with assessing what an adult has learned from input.
-Grammar is very abstract. "I will sooner see a UFO than a dative case or a subject complement."
-As we age, details blur but the perspective becomes broader.
-Practise monologues. Challenge yourself to remember as many synonyms as you can.
-Use a dictionary, but don't abuse it. At first it inspires thinking, later (in your learning) it makes you stop. When you look up a word you knew but forgot, use the L2-L1 part or a monolingual dictionary.
-Don't reread your uncorrected texts/translations or especially learn them by heart.
-Dictionaries are (in her opinion/experience) the best way to learn a new alphabet.
-Apart from tragic cases like brain injury, we can't really be sure which language we think in.
-We have compared speech in a foreign language to so many things — let's compare it now to photography. Let's suppose we see a beautiful rose and we want to take a photo of it. Nobody will press the lens against the individual petals and shoot them, one after another. Instead, you withdraw to a certain distance. You should go no further than what is necessary to see the whole of the rose when you glance into the viewfinder. The language learner who wants to translate words one by one makes the same mistake as a bad photographer. The object to be photographed, to continue the metaphor, should be the complete foreign-language form — a full sentence or phrase — not a part. (Aww, how times have changed. Now an average phone can take a good macro pic of the individual petal, and you have space for tons of pics :D)
-Her own strategy was playing around with a dictionary, then getting a textbook with answer keys and some literature. She'd use adapted texts at first or "any literature published before 1950", as she had trouble "understanding the style of modern novels, even in Hungarian". ;D
-She would initially write out the words that she understood, in context (sentences). Only after two or three reads she resorted to dictionaries and even then didn't look up everything.
-She essentially used radio news in several languages as parallel texts.
-The next step would be to find a teacher and expat. She'd practise listening (slower speech at first) and speaking, and she'd get corrections for her writing (free essays at first, later translations).
-Guests are not language teachers.
-Occasionally cringe-worthy for me as a feminist. Also a very simplistic approach to things like introversion, depression.
-Learning about the L2 country's culture/geography/economics/politics is/was a common form of procrastination. Easier for teachers too.
-While travelling, success depends on the previous knowledge and the opportunities to "observe and record the natives' speech".
-It is a grave delusion that merely staying in a foreign country will allow you to absorb its language. I think people have been misled by the Latin proverb Saxa loquuntur, or "Stones talk". :DDD
-"A" and "F" students will benefit the least from trips.
-I interrupt myself here to give some practical advice to those preparing to go to America. On the train, in the hotel lounge, or at the breakfast table, those sitting next to you will ask you the same questions. First question: "Where are you from?" Second: "What do you do?" Third: "What do you drive?" When I was a novice traveler, I admitted that I usually took the bus. People were so astonished that I changed my answer. I now say, "I don't think you know the make — it's an Ikarus." "Is it a big car?" they would ask. "Is it bigger than a Chevrolet?" "Much bigger!" I would reply with a quick flip of the wrist. (Ikarus is a Hungarian bus manufacturer.)
-When building a house, everybody finds it natural that the work begins with a foundation. No one wonders why after many working hours there is nothing to be seen above ground.
-If learning was only about innate talent, those who supposedly have it would master any language with the same ease.
-The complaint "I have no talent for languages" usually means that someone can only memorize new words with difficulty, after several tries.
-I heard from a swimming coach that how soon children learn to swim depends on how much they trust themselves and the surrounding world.
-It is an interesting rule that conversation is not absolutely necessary for speech to develop. It is enough in childhood to hear the sounds that don’t exist in our mother tongue for the ear to get used to them and for the mouth to be able to reproduce them later.
-Of the linguists of the past, my favorite is Tom Coryat, the ancestor of all hippies... His official trade was vagrancy: he set off at the age of 16 and walked 2000 miles, acquiring 14 languages in the process. According to his pledge, he never rode a cart and never changed his shoes — an example worth bearing in mind for our comfort- loving youth and also for our shoe manufacturing.
-For Kató Lomb, a knowledge of Hungarian means massive bonus points. For me that applies to Finnish ;)
-An interpreter’s job is an eternal compromise between the ideal of "I would like it perfect" and the reality of "that is what my time allowed." This career is not for perfectionists.
-According to a French proverb, "good is the enemy of better". (Doesn't apply to interpreting, in her experience) In Russian we have the opposite proverb.
-The general public thinks of interpreters as being members of a uniform profession, in the same way that they believed peasants to be of a uniform class until the liberation of 1945.
-Aww, a footnote explaining what Leningrad is.
-A politician once casually mentioned that he had heard about the Hungarian movie's "Merry-Go-Round" being screened in Japan. She ended up running around the room in an attempt to explain the concept. Turned out the Japanese just use the English word.
-An early machine translation program turned "out of sight, out of mind" into "invisible idiot".
-She was once corrected for saying "all corners of the world", because the Earth is round. (I love literal interpretations. Should remember not to be like this)
-A student was asked to interpret for an ornithologist. "This is a hoopoe with perching legs and a double-feathered crest that can be made erected or decumbent." Utter silence followed. Then the interpreter started to speak: "Vogel!" (bird)
-"When he is dissected after his death," a disrespectful interpreter said of a foreign dignitary, "a million predicates will be found in his stomach: those he swallowed in the past decades without saying them."
Let's finish with a beautiful excerpt by a Hungarian writer:
My own thoughts, examples, additions or conclusions are in italics.
-For TLDR, see her ten personal rules.
-Language is the only thing worth knowing badly (or just a little). I wonder if I've seen the paragraph quoted elsewhere and incorrectly attributed it to Barry Farber. Oops, shame on me if so. (Speaking of that, this book is a great choice for the challenge of broadening your horizons and reading authors that aren't cishet white males)
-Interesting how she used "false friends" to mean generalizations, ie words you "create" based on the patterns you know, rather than an incorrect usage or comprehension of the words that do exist (like the well-known examples with embarazado and constipado in Spanish).
-Interference doesn't come only from your native language, but also your first foreign language, maybe especially English. In my experience it can also come from any strong language, particularly from the same family/group.
-False friends exist even with numbers, see billions, milliards etc.
-She was shocked when someone had a car accident and she was told "Esperamos su muerte".
-An Italian beau will not succeed if he flatters a German girl by saying that he finds her calda and morbida (warm and soft), because calda connotes kalt (cold) and morbida connotes morbidität (morbid). Maybe if she's a gothic girl...
-Even if extrapolation has a certain negative impact on the acquirability of a new language, it may be a valuable means for fixing knowledge in our minds, because unfixed knowledge will fly away.
-To fix the knowledge, contrasting is one of the best ways. (she mostly describes contrasting the features of two languages)
-Let's not be angry then with mistakes. Many a valuable thing were born out of them — among other things, the French, Italian, and Spanish languages. All three developed from the vulgar (common) use of Latin.
-It's touching to see Russians described as actual liberators and good people. (My great-grandfather participated in the liberation of Budapest) I loved reading about her experience with my native language. It's also heartbreaking to find out that she first started ignoring the unfamiliar and opaque words out of necessity, as she didn't dare to consult a Russian dictionary.
-Wanderlust!!! Just a few pages in I already wanted to improve my Romanian... and to visit Hungary as well.
-She didn't approve of trying to learn a language only passively.
-There's no easy language. Some are just easier to learn poorly.
-Unfortunately, acquired vocabulary is not like a pretty porcelain figure that once you obtain, you can keep enclosed in a display case for the rest of your life.
-I’ve heard that famous conductors will practice a piece inside out nearly every minute. Then they will put it aside and not touch it before the concert one or two weeks later. They notice that it helps the performance. In language learning, the amount of a language learned while abroad will often not show up until well after arriving home.
-Sign up for classes way above your level, if you take them at all. (At least she did that with Polish when she already spoke Russian. It's certainly true that a beginner class will be boring if you speak a related language when most people don't)
-Repetition is vital.
-We love comfort. Americans are particularly fond of it.
-A complacent brain shows smaller resistance to repetition that drizzles like lukewarm rain than to the requirement of conscious concentration. I suspect that this is what sticks the young in front of our TV screens today. So computer games are clearly better. (What MBTI sees as a Sensing preference is deemed as laziness, choosing the minimal intellectual and physical effort)
-I always buy books in pairs: this increases the chance that at least one will be comprehensible.
-There is as little likelihood of squeezing an adult into the intellectual framework of their childhood as there is into their first pair of pajamas.
-An average adult [presumably learning their first foreign language, or the first after English nowadays] needs to study at least 10-12 hours a week, in her opinion. The proposed solution is to connect language learning with work and/or leisure.
-Persistent attention and self-effort are the preconditions of all successful learning.
-Interesting literally means being inside, within.
-Technical/scientific texts are the richest and the most reliable sources of technical terms (ie, better than dictionaries).
-She advocated self-talk and called it autologue, as opposed to monologue and dialogue.
-Frenchmen are/were too proud to get used to the fact that their language, "once a means of communication between emperors and ambassadors, is now stumbling from the lips of lowbudget tourists".
-It is food for thought that at the Congress of Vienna assembled after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, it was in French that the representatives of the Holy Alliance discussed the methods of eclipsing the French language and culture.
-An uninteresting partner is uninteresting in a foreign language as well.
-Read from the beginning, and read actively. Although more efficient means of learning exist, more accessible and obliging ones do not.
-More energy invested means better efficiency.
-The relationship that develops between you and the knowledge you obtain [through extensive reading] will be much deeper than if you had consulted the dictionary automatically.
-Also, the informality of the threesome means you can learn in a relaxed way without the tenseness and artificiality of the typical foreign language class. Sorry, nowadays this makes me giggle. But yeah, if study in a group, she thinks three is the best size.
-It's a fundamental truth of human nature to seek the pleasant and avoid the unpleasant.
-With some willpower, you can develop the habit of discussing your experiences with yourself in a foreign language. Again, it is only a matter of self-discipline. (I do that too)
-OMG the AJATT concept of linguistic microclimate (vs macroclimate) is borrowed from this book. I didn't realize.
-At first, we should read with a blitheness practically bordering on superficiality; later on, with a conscientiousness close to distrust.
-There is a great advantage to learning a language through written translations rather than conversation. To speak a foreign language is a matter of practice, and mistakes will be made. Unfortunately, it is difficult for intellectually confident people to accept making mistakes. Therefore they may refrain from speaking. As László Németh says, "Those with real knowledge only want to say what they know." In written translations, this problem does not exist; you do not have to display your knowledge spontaneously and you usually have the time and resources to avoid making mistakes.
-I frequently see men reading the easiest pulp fiction, armed with heavy dictionaries. They will read one word in the book and then look it up in the dictionary. No wonder they soon get bored of reading and end up sighing with relief when it is time for the news so they can turn on the TV.
-Who hasn't felt a mild shiver when throwing oneself into the cool waters of a lake? Who hasn't desired to climb back to the sunlit sand? And who hasn't been happy after a minute or two, after getting used to the cold of the water, for resisting the temptation? An interesting foreign language text should help the "swimmer" over the initial aversion and discouragement of reading.
-Language is present in a piece of writing like the sea in a single drop.
however:
-Text is always a woven fabric. You can take a word or phrase out of it but... [it] will only represent the whole as much as a snippet of fabric will represent the bolt of cloth it originated from. The threads interweave and strengthen each other...
-Words always need context. But facial expressions, intonation, gestures also count, and mnemonics create an artificial context.
-I recommend untidy glossaries with all my heart to everyone. Neatly inscribed lines with uniform pearly letters are like desert landscapes. They mix together and make you sleepy; memory has nothing to cling to. We gain firm and steady footholds if we write with different instruments (pen, pencil, or colored pencils) in various styles (slanting, upright, small letters, capital letters, etc). Nowadays computers and digital technologies make it even easier, of course.
-The knowledge you obtain at the expense of some brainwork will be more yours than what you receive ready-made.
-Ideally, learning should stimulate both the intellectual and emotional sphere.
-Vocabulary from easiest to hardest: nouns that refer to objects (house, book), adjectives denoting perceptible properties (colour, size), abstract nouns, verbs expressing specific actions (run, give), verbs expressing a symbolic action (complete, ensure).
-Filler words (quite, instead, though) are difficult because there are no objective concepts attached to them, but they're important.
-Similar words should be "lined up and interrogated at the same time".
-The first thing you should learn is "excuse me". Yet textbooks never teach it from the very beginning. This mirrors my own experience in Germany back in 2005, when I'd had 1.5 years of relatively good German classes. I could say many things but I didn't know how to say excuse me.
-Textbooks suffer from "substantivitis", an excess of nouns. One had triple possessives in every sentence (the thoroughbred riding horse of the poacher of the neighbour's land).
-Language is a tool used for millions of purposes. Its change is natural: it stretches and it wears away, it widens and it shrinks. It loses its regular shape. And it loses its shape where it is touched by the most people: at everyday words. And everyday words are what all language learners must deal with.
-It is easier to understand a technical text than to correctly ask for a glass of water, or tell a good joke.
-A complicated structure? Undoubtedly. But after all, the cathedral of Milan is complicated too, and you still look at it with awe. (One of the best things I've heard about my native language)
-She admired youth slang.
-When doing simultaneous interpreting, she would close her eyes to concentrate. I admit I can't imagine deliberately not watching the person speak when the opportunity is there.
-"My daughter is around halfway at the moment. She knows 1500 words and with 1500 more she'll speak perfect German."
-Kids are not exceptional language learners, they just put in a lot of time.
-A school's way of assessing readiness is typically a poor measure of the personal knowledge the child has acquired in his or her natural environment. Same with assessing what an adult has learned from input.
-Grammar is very abstract. "I will sooner see a UFO than a dative case or a subject complement."
-As we age, details blur but the perspective becomes broader.
-Practise monologues. Challenge yourself to remember as many synonyms as you can.
-Use a dictionary, but don't abuse it. At first it inspires thinking, later (in your learning) it makes you stop. When you look up a word you knew but forgot, use the L2-L1 part or a monolingual dictionary.
-Don't reread your uncorrected texts/translations or especially learn them by heart.
-Dictionaries are (in her opinion/experience) the best way to learn a new alphabet.
-Apart from tragic cases like brain injury, we can't really be sure which language we think in.
-We have compared speech in a foreign language to so many things — let's compare it now to photography. Let's suppose we see a beautiful rose and we want to take a photo of it. Nobody will press the lens against the individual petals and shoot them, one after another. Instead, you withdraw to a certain distance. You should go no further than what is necessary to see the whole of the rose when you glance into the viewfinder. The language learner who wants to translate words one by one makes the same mistake as a bad photographer. The object to be photographed, to continue the metaphor, should be the complete foreign-language form — a full sentence or phrase — not a part. (Aww, how times have changed. Now an average phone can take a good macro pic of the individual petal, and you have space for tons of pics :D)
-Her own strategy was playing around with a dictionary, then getting a textbook with answer keys and some literature. She'd use adapted texts at first or "any literature published before 1950", as she had trouble "understanding the style of modern novels, even in Hungarian". ;D
-She would initially write out the words that she understood, in context (sentences). Only after two or three reads she resorted to dictionaries and even then didn't look up everything.
-She essentially used radio news in several languages as parallel texts.
-The next step would be to find a teacher and expat. She'd practise listening (slower speech at first) and speaking, and she'd get corrections for her writing (free essays at first, later translations).
-Guests are not language teachers.
-Occasionally cringe-worthy for me as a feminist. Also a very simplistic approach to things like introversion, depression.
-Learning about the L2 country's culture/geography/economics/politics is/was a common form of procrastination. Easier for teachers too.
-While travelling, success depends on the previous knowledge and the opportunities to "observe and record the natives' speech".
-It is a grave delusion that merely staying in a foreign country will allow you to absorb its language. I think people have been misled by the Latin proverb Saxa loquuntur, or "Stones talk". :DDD
-"A" and "F" students will benefit the least from trips.
-I interrupt myself here to give some practical advice to those preparing to go to America. On the train, in the hotel lounge, or at the breakfast table, those sitting next to you will ask you the same questions. First question: "Where are you from?" Second: "What do you do?" Third: "What do you drive?" When I was a novice traveler, I admitted that I usually took the bus. People were so astonished that I changed my answer. I now say, "I don't think you know the make — it's an Ikarus." "Is it a big car?" they would ask. "Is it bigger than a Chevrolet?" "Much bigger!" I would reply with a quick flip of the wrist. (Ikarus is a Hungarian bus manufacturer.)
-When building a house, everybody finds it natural that the work begins with a foundation. No one wonders why after many working hours there is nothing to be seen above ground.
-If learning was only about innate talent, those who supposedly have it would master any language with the same ease.
-The complaint "I have no talent for languages" usually means that someone can only memorize new words with difficulty, after several tries.
-I heard from a swimming coach that how soon children learn to swim depends on how much they trust themselves and the surrounding world.
-It is an interesting rule that conversation is not absolutely necessary for speech to develop. It is enough in childhood to hear the sounds that don’t exist in our mother tongue for the ear to get used to them and for the mouth to be able to reproduce them later.
-Of the linguists of the past, my favorite is Tom Coryat, the ancestor of all hippies... His official trade was vagrancy: he set off at the age of 16 and walked 2000 miles, acquiring 14 languages in the process. According to his pledge, he never rode a cart and never changed his shoes — an example worth bearing in mind for our comfort- loving youth and also for our shoe manufacturing.
-For Kató Lomb, a knowledge of Hungarian means massive bonus points. For me that applies to Finnish ;)
-An interpreter’s job is an eternal compromise between the ideal of "I would like it perfect" and the reality of "that is what my time allowed." This career is not for perfectionists.
-According to a French proverb, "good is the enemy of better". (Doesn't apply to interpreting, in her experience) In Russian we have the opposite proverb.
-The general public thinks of interpreters as being members of a uniform profession, in the same way that they believed peasants to be of a uniform class until the liberation of 1945.
-Aww, a footnote explaining what Leningrad is.
-A politician once casually mentioned that he had heard about the Hungarian movie's "Merry-Go-Round" being screened in Japan. She ended up running around the room in an attempt to explain the concept. Turned out the Japanese just use the English word.
-An early machine translation program turned "out of sight, out of mind" into "invisible idiot".
-She was once corrected for saying "all corners of the world", because the Earth is round. (I love literal interpretations. Should remember not to be like this)
-A student was asked to interpret for an ornithologist. "This is a hoopoe with perching legs and a double-feathered crest that can be made erected or decumbent." Utter silence followed. Then the interpreter started to speak: "Vogel!" (bird)
-"When he is dissected after his death," a disrespectful interpreter said of a foreign dignitary, "a million predicates will be found in his stomach: those he swallowed in the past decades without saying them."
Let's finish with a beautiful excerpt by a Hungarian writer:
That summer, my only thought was having a rest, playing ball, and swimming. Therefore, I didn't bring along anything to work with. At the last minute, I threw a Portuguese book into my baggage.
...in the open, by necessity, I resigned myself to the book, and in the prison of my solitude, formed by dolomite rocks on one side and vast forests on the other, between the sky and the water, I started to make the text out. At first, it was difficult. Then I got the hang of it. I resolved I would still get to the bottom of it, without a master or a dictionary. To spur my instinct and creativity, I imagined I would be hit by some great trouble were I not to understand it exactly, or maybe an unknown tyrant would even condemn me to death.
It was a strange game. The first week, I sweated blood. The second, I intuited what it was about. The third week, I greeted the birds in Portuguese, who then chatted with me...
...I very much doubt if I could ever use it in my life or if I would be able to read any other Portuguese books. But it is not important. I did not regret this summer's steeplechase. I wonder about those who learn a language for practical reasons rather than for itself. It is boring to know. The only thing of interest is learning.
...An exciting game, a coquettish hide-and-seek, a magnificent flirt with the spirit of humanity. Never do we read so fluently and with such keen eyes as in a hardly known, new language. We grow young by it, we become children, babbling babies and we seem to start a new life. This is the elixir of my life.
...Sometimes I think of it with a certain joy that I can even learn Chinese at my ancient age and that I can recall the bygone pleasure of childhood when I first uttered in the superstitious, old language "mother," and I fall asleep with this word: "milk."
Read
January 10, 2020Sokat gondolkodtam azon, miért volt az elején annyira ellenszenves a szerző, miközben osztozom a szenvedélyében. Azt hiszem, az lehet a magyarázat, hogy korban és személyiségben is nagyon távol állunk egymástól. Ráadásul miközben megjegyezte, hogy ez csak az ő tapasztalata, nála működik ez a módszer, sokszor mégis elég megmondósan adta elő a tételeit. (Nem tízparancsolat, csak tíz kérés, de azért római számokkal, pontokba szedve.) Bár az is lehet, hogy csak az irigység beszél belőlem.
Nem tetszett, hogy heti 10-12 órát kellene lecsippenteni az időmből (honnan?). Bár ha – a szerzőre hallgatva – adott nyelven olvasunk, nézünk filmet, hallgatunk zenét, még akár össze is jöhet. A popkultúra segítségével nyelvet tanulni egyébként tényleg nagyon hatékony.
Nagyon taszítottak az olyan felelőtlen húzásai, mint hogy elvállalt fordítási munkát olyan nyelvből, amelyet egyáltalán nem értett (kényelmes határidő lehetett, ez sem egy mai helyzet) vagy hogy haladó tanfolyamra jelentkezett nulla tudással. El nem tudom képzelni, ez hogyan lehet jó vagy működőképes, bárkinek hasznos.
Amikor azonban a nyelvtanár-fordító-tolmács pályákhoz szükséges eltérő személyiségtípusokról írt, el is párolgott az ellenszenvem. Ekkor értettem meg, hogy a tolmács pont úgy ugrik minden alkalommal a mélyvízbe, ahogyan ő tette.
Vicces volt egyébként ezt a könyvet az Ulysses első részével egyszerre olvasni. Ezek után ott nem is akadtam fenn a beszúrt latin, görög, francia, német szavakon, mondatokon. Csak hiányoltam a kínai, japán és főleg az orosz példákat.
Megerősített, hogy jól döntöttem, és ami talán a legfontosabb, kedvem támadt újabb nyelvtanulásba belevágni. Csak azt nem tudom eldönteni, hogy a franciát szedjem össze megint vagy az olasznak fussak neki a nulláról. (Ugyanitt: bonyolult műszaki szövegek fordítását vállalom olaszról tetszőleges nyelvre.)
Még személyesebben: https://blueisthenewpink.wordpress.co...
Nem tetszett, hogy heti 10-12 órát kellene lecsippenteni az időmből (honnan?). Bár ha – a szerzőre hallgatva – adott nyelven olvasunk, nézünk filmet, hallgatunk zenét, még akár össze is jöhet. A popkultúra segítségével nyelvet tanulni egyébként tényleg nagyon hatékony.
Nagyon taszítottak az olyan felelőtlen húzásai, mint hogy elvállalt fordítási munkát olyan nyelvből, amelyet egyáltalán nem értett (kényelmes határidő lehetett, ez sem egy mai helyzet) vagy hogy haladó tanfolyamra jelentkezett nulla tudással. El nem tudom képzelni, ez hogyan lehet jó vagy működőképes, bárkinek hasznos.
Amikor azonban a nyelvtanár-fordító-tolmács pályákhoz szükséges eltérő személyiségtípusokról írt, el is párolgott az ellenszenvem. Ekkor értettem meg, hogy a tolmács pont úgy ugrik minden alkalommal a mélyvízbe, ahogyan ő tette.
Vicces volt egyébként ezt a könyvet az Ulysses első részével egyszerre olvasni. Ezek után ott nem is akadtam fenn a beszúrt latin, görög, francia, német szavakon, mondatokon. Csak hiányoltam a kínai, japán és főleg az orosz példákat.
Megerősített, hogy jól döntöttem, és ami talán a legfontosabb, kedvem támadt újabb nyelvtanulásba belevágni. Csak azt nem tudom eldönteni, hogy a franciát szedjem össze megint vagy az olasznak fussak neki a nulláról. (Ugyanitt: bonyolult műszaki szövegek fordítását vállalom olaszról tetszőleges nyelvre.)
Még személyesebben: https://blueisthenewpink.wordpress.co...
November 20, 2014
I felt the author was a bit disingenuous here. She starts off telling of how she taught herself Russian using only a novel and a dictionary. Later, however, in her chapter on advice for learning a new language from scratch, she says not to do that, but start with a "teach yourself" book (and supplemental grammar reference), before tackling actual reading. Agree with another reviewer that she should've gone into greater detail on how she managed languages that don't use conventional western script (Japanese was promised, but not delivered). So, the useful part of her story would be "Don't let the challenge scare/intimidate you. Plunge on ahead, doing the best you can, and the rest will follow."
Honestly, I was left wondering just how great an "interpreter" she really was at times?
Honestly, I was left wondering just how great an "interpreter" she really was at times?
September 1, 2020
Interesting read on language learning technique from before the e-era of apps and Google translate. If it were to be resumed in one word, it would be : READ. But the author introduces all her tips and techniques learn through her own personal experience.
READING NOTES:
-Reading enables you to achieve for both purposes: elaboration (internalising patterns) and frequent repetition + best mean of creating a personal linguistic microclimate (as opposed to our country of residence linguistic microclimate, which is why you can live in another country for 15 years without getting to learn its language)
-learn from a source in your mother tongue
-10/12h per week minimum
-children have less knowledge to transmit + only need to communicate about basic needs + automatic ; adults are logical
-have internal silent monologues, achieving this is only a matter of self discipline
-speaking skills through reading : theatre, novels and short stories with a good pace
-read without looking up words in the dico, but get it from context, and the different context of the word that will be repeated again. Thus YOU found the meaning yourself
-Our first learnt foreign language interfere more with our second learnt foreign language than our mother tongue does, bc we remember the rules of the first more
-learning words in bunches to have context and better defined meaning
-first reading of a book: write word you understood from context in notebook in their sentences (not isolated). Only after second or third reading that you look up words you don’t know and even then, not every single word
-asides from this listening to TL radio, like the news and also the news in your language (as they are likely to be the same of international news). Write words you don’t understand and look them up after the listening.
-couple days later record your new words in glossary to force to review memory
-once a week tape recording and listen multiple times and focus on prononciation
-find a native speaker teacher who’s main job is to correct you
-writing: first freestyle, then do translation
10 suggestions for successful language learning
1/ play with TL every day. Try to produce 10min monologue every morning
2/ if lack of enthusiasm, change studying technique, eg from reading to listening
3/ learn in context
4/ write phrases from texts and use them in your conversations
5/ even if tired, have fun translating the little things you see eg billboard or numbers above doors
6/ memorise only sentences that have been proofread by a teacher
7/ memorise idiomatic expression at the first person
8/ use different ressources of different senses
9/ don’t be afraid of mistakes but ask to be corrected
10/ be firmly convinced that you are a linguistic genius, don’t ever blame yourself
What NOT to do
1/ don’t postpone
2/ don’t practice with your compatriotes
3/ don’t rely on teachers only, do by yourself
4/ don’t get obsessed with words or structure you don’t understand
5/ do not miss on writing your own thoughts in TL in simple sentences even if you must use your mothertongue for some words
6/ don’t stop yourself from speaking by fear of mistakes
7/ don’t forget filler expressions and sentences-starters for you to rely on
8/ do not memorise outside of context
9/ do not leave newly learning hanging in the air, you have to use them yourself to memorise them
10/ don’t shy out learning poems or songs by heart, it’s great for diction and Rhythm
READING NOTES:
-Reading enables you to achieve for both purposes: elaboration (internalising patterns) and frequent repetition + best mean of creating a personal linguistic microclimate (as opposed to our country of residence linguistic microclimate, which is why you can live in another country for 15 years without getting to learn its language)
-learn from a source in your mother tongue
-10/12h per week minimum
-children have less knowledge to transmit + only need to communicate about basic needs + automatic ; adults are logical
-have internal silent monologues, achieving this is only a matter of self discipline
-speaking skills through reading : theatre, novels and short stories with a good pace
-read without looking up words in the dico, but get it from context, and the different context of the word that will be repeated again. Thus YOU found the meaning yourself
-Our first learnt foreign language interfere more with our second learnt foreign language than our mother tongue does, bc we remember the rules of the first more
-learning words in bunches to have context and better defined meaning
-first reading of a book: write word you understood from context in notebook in their sentences (not isolated). Only after second or third reading that you look up words you don’t know and even then, not every single word
-asides from this listening to TL radio, like the news and also the news in your language (as they are likely to be the same of international news). Write words you don’t understand and look them up after the listening.
-couple days later record your new words in glossary to force to review memory
-once a week tape recording and listen multiple times and focus on prononciation
-find a native speaker teacher who’s main job is to correct you
-writing: first freestyle, then do translation
10 suggestions for successful language learning
1/ play with TL every day. Try to produce 10min monologue every morning
2/ if lack of enthusiasm, change studying technique, eg from reading to listening
3/ learn in context
4/ write phrases from texts and use them in your conversations
5/ even if tired, have fun translating the little things you see eg billboard or numbers above doors
6/ memorise only sentences that have been proofread by a teacher
7/ memorise idiomatic expression at the first person
8/ use different ressources of different senses
9/ don’t be afraid of mistakes but ask to be corrected
10/ be firmly convinced that you are a linguistic genius, don’t ever blame yourself
What NOT to do
1/ don’t postpone
2/ don’t practice with your compatriotes
3/ don’t rely on teachers only, do by yourself
4/ don’t get obsessed with words or structure you don’t understand
5/ do not miss on writing your own thoughts in TL in simple sentences even if you must use your mothertongue for some words
6/ don’t stop yourself from speaking by fear of mistakes
7/ don’t forget filler expressions and sentences-starters for you to rely on
8/ do not memorise outside of context
9/ do not leave newly learning hanging in the air, you have to use them yourself to memorise them
10/ don’t shy out learning poems or songs by heart, it’s great for diction and Rhythm
January 10, 2020
Én – sajnos? szerencsére? – annyira öreg vagyok, hogy személyesen találkoztam a szerzővel, aki már a 70-es években is néni volt nekem.* :) A főiskolán alapműként ajánlották nekünk ezt a könyvet, és mivel jövendő fordítókat, tolmácsokat, idegen nyelvű levelezőket képeztek, meg is hívták Lomb Katót egy beszélgetésre a diákokkal.
Volt egy olyan érzésem, hogy picit ellenszenves a hölgy. Azt magyarázta nekünk, akik napi 6 (főiskola) + 2-3-4 (másnapra készülés!) órában küzdöttünk (én imádtam, de akkor is küzdelem volt, napról napra, hétről hétre) a nyelvtanulással, hogy ez sétagalopp, csak fel kell ütni egy tetszőleges könyvet egy tetszőleges nyelven, és két hét múlva már pereghet is a nyelvünk… Hát ezt nem hittem. Ma sem hiszem.
Az főleg nem tetszett, hogy azt állította, fordítást vállalt ismeretlen nyelvből. Ezt simán nem hittem el.
De! Rengeteget segített ez a könyv (meg az a régi találkozás) abban, hogy lazábban vegyem a nyelvtanulást. Hogy nekivágjak idegen nyelven olvasni úgy, hogy nem görcsölök a szótárral, csak kulcsszavakat nézek meg vagy írok ki magamnak. Hogy lássam, hogyan néz ki a tolmács és fordító szakma belülről. Hogy kedvem támadjon párhuzamosan tanulni nyelveket, élvezettel összehasonlítva szavakat és nyelvtani elemeket. Hogy bátran vágjak bele új nyelv tanulásába, és ne rettegjek attól**, hogy használjam és felvállaljam az általam tanult, tudott nyelveket.
Még ma is csodálom azt, aki ennyi nyelven tud, mert nekem lassan már külön feladat fenntartani a négy idegen nyelven megszerzett tudást is.
* Most meg már én vagyok az. :)))
** ez persze nem mindig sikerült
Volt egy olyan érzésem, hogy picit ellenszenves a hölgy. Azt magyarázta nekünk, akik napi 6 (főiskola) + 2-3-4 (másnapra készülés!) órában küzdöttünk (én imádtam, de akkor is küzdelem volt, napról napra, hétről hétre) a nyelvtanulással, hogy ez sétagalopp, csak fel kell ütni egy tetszőleges könyvet egy tetszőleges nyelven, és két hét múlva már pereghet is a nyelvünk… Hát ezt nem hittem. Ma sem hiszem.
Az főleg nem tetszett, hogy azt állította, fordítást vállalt ismeretlen nyelvből. Ezt simán nem hittem el.
De! Rengeteget segített ez a könyv (meg az a régi találkozás) abban, hogy lazábban vegyem a nyelvtanulást. Hogy nekivágjak idegen nyelven olvasni úgy, hogy nem görcsölök a szótárral, csak kulcsszavakat nézek meg vagy írok ki magamnak. Hogy lássam, hogyan néz ki a tolmács és fordító szakma belülről. Hogy kedvem támadjon párhuzamosan tanulni nyelveket, élvezettel összehasonlítva szavakat és nyelvtani elemeket. Hogy bátran vágjak bele új nyelv tanulásába, és ne rettegjek attól**, hogy használjam és felvállaljam az általam tanult, tudott nyelveket.
Még ma is csodálom azt, aki ennyi nyelven tud, mert nekem lassan már külön feladat fenntartani a négy idegen nyelven megszerzett tudást is.
* Most meg már én vagyok az. :)))
** ez persze nem mindig sikerült
February 4, 2010
Закончила How to Learn Any Language, и сразу захотелось перечитать ещё в школе читаную Като Ломб.
Первый раз я её читала в конце семидесятых - любимая учительница по французскому дала буквально на день.
Потом несколько лет спустя перечитала за несколько часов в читальном зале. А записная книжка с выписками у меня даже здесь.
Я забыла, как писались советские книжки (пусть это только перевод), немного странно. А всё, что касается непосредственно языков, я, как оказалось, не просто помню, а просто-таки наизусть.
Книжка из тех, в которые влюбляешься, и даже если теперь что-то кажется наивным или очевидным, всё равно это любовь. Счастлива, что она когда-то так вовремя попала в мою жизнь.
Первый раз я её читала в конце семидесятых - любимая учительница по французскому дала буквально на день.
Потом несколько лет спустя перечитала за несколько часов в читальном зале. А записная книжка с выписками у меня даже здесь.
Я забыла, как писались советские книжки (пусть это только перевод), немного странно. А всё, что касается непосредственно языков, я, как оказалось, не просто помню, а просто-таки наизусть.
Книжка из тех, в которые влюбляешься, и даже если теперь что-то кажется наивным или очевидным, всё равно это любовь. Счастлива, что она когда-то так вовремя попала в мою жизнь.
December 29, 2022
Suur hetk on käes: esiteks elu sajas raamat (piinlik muidugi, et alles 22aastaselt, nähes kuidas paljud siin selle hulga aasta või paariga ära tarbivad) ning teiseks selle aasta viieteistkümnes, seega täitsin esimest korda oma aasta lugemiseesmärgi!
Raamatust endast nii palju, et soovitan seda kõigile, kes huvituvad nii keeltest ja keeleõppest kui ka ilukirjandusest, ja erialakaaslastele ütleksin, et keelte, tõlkide, polüglottide jms ajaloost saab ka omajagu teada. Hakkasin lugema soovist oma keeleõppeprotsessi optimeerida, saada kellegi perspektiiv, kes oskas väga palju keeli; lõpetasin raamatu aga tänu huvitavatele näidetele tõlgi elust ja tööst ning ajaloost. Raamat suudab olla eneseabiraamat ilma seda olemata: annab abi keeleõppega, samas ei muutu igavaks, korduvaks ega faktiliselt/ideeliselt ebatäpseks ning annab ka palju muud sisendit peale koheselt praktilisena paistva (sorri, see on vähemalt minu senine kogemus eneseabižanriga); pigem kategoriseerub teos enim biograafia alla.
Kõige omapärasem aspekt Lombi keeleõppeprotsessist (vähemalt ainus, mida mina enne raamatu lugemist tema meetodi kohta teadsin) on ilmselt see, et ta hakkas õpitavas võõrkeeles lugema väga varakult, ja peaasjalikult just ilukirjandustekste. Samuti ei soovitanud ta vaadata sõnu järgi sõnaraamatust, vaid lugeda raamatuid korduvalt ning üritada uutest sõnadest aru saada konteksti abil (üritan tuleval aastal sama meetodit ise testida, kuigi ma ei julge lubada, et ma sõnaraamatusse pilku ei viska). Raamatute miinusena tõi Lomb välja selle, et need ei võimalda suulise kõne praktikat, kuid kaks olulist osa tema keeleõppest olid ka 1) raadiosaadete salvestamine ja korduv kuulamine ning 2) (subtiitriteta) filmide vaatamine. Seega arvan, et kui Lomb oleks elanud tänapäeval, oleks ta vägagi seda usku, et olulised osad keeleõppest on palju paindlikumad ja laiemad versioonid varem saadaval olnud võimalustest: taskuhäälingute kuulamine ja YouTube'i videote vaatamine (erinevalt lugemisest, kui välja arvata lühemad uudistekstid, olen neid meetodeid viimasel ajal ka ise kasutanud ja soovitan neid väga).
Jätan siiski 5 tähte panemata, sest ma ei saa päris sajale protsendile raamatu sisust alla kirjutada. Eriarvamus on mul näiteks Lombi loodud keeleõppimise oodatava edu valemiga: algul toob autor välja kulutatud aeg + huvi = tulemus, seejärel (kulutatud aeg + huvi) / takistus = tulemus. Ma tunnen, et see on natuke liiga üheülbaline ja neid parameetreid on märksa rohkem (inimeste loomuomased eripärad ja taust!). Samuti, kuigi kohati räägib autor ka sellele vastu, jääb raamatust mulje, nagu arvaks ta, et keeleõpe on midagi universaalset, et kõigile inimesele sobivad parimini samad õppemeetodid (reaalsuses nt: auditoorsed vs visuaalsed vs kineetilised õppijad), ja samuti, et iga keele õppimise jaoks sobivad samad meetodid. Samas saan ma enamjaolt nõustuda sellega, et sellist asja nagu keeleanne pole otseselt olemas. On küll inimesi, kes omandavad keeli kiiremini ja aeglasemini, aga erinevus põhineb ilmselt suuresti, nagu Lomb välja tõi, erinevatel huvidel. Näiteks võib keegi (mina) teada palju obskuurseid ja spetsiifilisi ajaloofakte, aga jääb põhikooli matemaatikaga jänni; mõnel reaalteadlasel on vastupidi. Aga häid ideid ja mõtteid on rohkem, kui jõuaksin üles loetleda, seega, nagu öeldud, soovitan siiski soojalt!
Raamatust endast nii palju, et soovitan seda kõigile, kes huvituvad nii keeltest ja keeleõppest kui ka ilukirjandusest, ja erialakaaslastele ütleksin, et keelte, tõlkide, polüglottide jms ajaloost saab ka omajagu teada. Hakkasin lugema soovist oma keeleõppeprotsessi optimeerida, saada kellegi perspektiiv, kes oskas väga palju keeli; lõpetasin raamatu aga tänu huvitavatele näidetele tõlgi elust ja tööst ning ajaloost. Raamat suudab olla eneseabiraamat ilma seda olemata: annab abi keeleõppega, samas ei muutu igavaks, korduvaks ega faktiliselt/ideeliselt ebatäpseks ning annab ka palju muud sisendit peale koheselt praktilisena paistva (sorri, see on vähemalt minu senine kogemus eneseabižanriga); pigem kategoriseerub teos enim biograafia alla.
Kõige omapärasem aspekt Lombi keeleõppeprotsessist (vähemalt ainus, mida mina enne raamatu lugemist tema meetodi kohta teadsin) on ilmselt see, et ta hakkas õpitavas võõrkeeles lugema väga varakult, ja peaasjalikult just ilukirjandustekste. Samuti ei soovitanud ta vaadata sõnu järgi sõnaraamatust, vaid lugeda raamatuid korduvalt ning üritada uutest sõnadest aru saada konteksti abil (üritan tuleval aastal sama meetodit ise testida, kuigi ma ei julge lubada, et ma sõnaraamatusse pilku ei viska). Raamatute miinusena tõi Lomb välja selle, et need ei võimalda suulise kõne praktikat, kuid kaks olulist osa tema keeleõppest olid ka 1) raadiosaadete salvestamine ja korduv kuulamine ning 2) (subtiitriteta) filmide vaatamine. Seega arvan, et kui Lomb oleks elanud tänapäeval, oleks ta vägagi seda usku, et olulised osad keeleõppest on palju paindlikumad ja laiemad versioonid varem saadaval olnud võimalustest: taskuhäälingute kuulamine ja YouTube'i videote vaatamine (erinevalt lugemisest, kui välja arvata lühemad uudistekstid, olen neid meetodeid viimasel ajal ka ise kasutanud ja soovitan neid väga).
Jätan siiski 5 tähte panemata, sest ma ei saa päris sajale protsendile raamatu sisust alla kirjutada. Eriarvamus on mul näiteks Lombi loodud keeleõppimise oodatava edu valemiga: algul toob autor välja kulutatud aeg + huvi = tulemus, seejärel (kulutatud aeg + huvi) / takistus = tulemus. Ma tunnen, et see on natuke liiga üheülbaline ja neid parameetreid on märksa rohkem (inimeste loomuomased eripärad ja taust!). Samuti, kuigi kohati räägib autor ka sellele vastu, jääb raamatust mulje, nagu arvaks ta, et keeleõpe on midagi universaalset, et kõigile inimesele sobivad parimini samad õppemeetodid (reaalsuses nt: auditoorsed vs visuaalsed vs kineetilised õppijad), ja samuti, et iga keele õppimise jaoks sobivad samad meetodid. Samas saan ma enamjaolt nõustuda sellega, et sellist asja nagu keeleanne pole otseselt olemas. On küll inimesi, kes omandavad keeli kiiremini ja aeglasemini, aga erinevus põhineb ilmselt suuresti, nagu Lomb välja tõi, erinevatel huvidel. Näiteks võib keegi (mina) teada palju obskuurseid ja spetsiifilisi ajaloofakte, aga jääb põhikooli matemaatikaga jänni; mõnel reaalteadlasel on vastupidi. Aga häid ideid ja mõtteid on rohkem, kui jõuaksin üles loetleda, seega, nagu öeldud, soovitan siiski soojalt!
March 9, 2021
imeline tõestus sellest, et mitmete (ja isegi kümnete) keelte oskamine ei seisne “kaasasündinud keeletaibus”, vaid julges pealehakkamises, järjepidevas töös ja ennekõike lihtsalt siiras uudishimus
June 3, 2020
After reading this book I started talking in Dutch to clients without feeling bad anymore about mistakes I'm making and words and phrases I still don't understand. I learnt to give myself a compliment after a full day of talking the language I haven't mastered yet, instead of feeling unprofessional, miserable and wanting to give up.
From the very start, Kató keeps insisting that there is no such thing as “talent for languages”, that it is dedication, hard work and practice that do the magic. I’ve been suspecting this as well for a long time - dedicating hours and hours every day for learning English during my school and university years. Back then I didn't know, however, how to make the language learning journey a pleasant experience and be grateful for every small progress that I make. As Kató inspiringly states - “language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly”. Thank you, Kató, for giving me more courage to acquire languages with this book.
From the very start, Kató keeps insisting that there is no such thing as “talent for languages”, that it is dedication, hard work and practice that do the magic. I’ve been suspecting this as well for a long time - dedicating hours and hours every day for learning English during my school and university years. Back then I didn't know, however, how to make the language learning journey a pleasant experience and be grateful for every small progress that I make. As Kató inspiringly states - “language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly”. Thank you, Kató, for giving me more courage to acquire languages with this book.
August 21, 2021
3.5 Slightly outdated, but still fascinating and often witty. And it actually did help me to make better sense of my attempts at learning French.
May 26, 2017
There is a stark difference between how books about language learning are written today, and books a few decades ago. A distinct lack of the word "science" aside for now, the organization of the material itself is very different. Don't expect clear headers, and subheaders guiding you to the main points, and techniques of interest. The entire chapter needs to be read in order to grasp the main point. If there even is one. Sometimes it's just an anecdote. Though I tend not to skim books, preferring to savour them, skimmers beware, this book is not for you.
With all of that said, there are two concepts in this book that are worth taking away:
1) The brain is very good at figuring shit out. Feed it lots of input (like books), and you'll be on your way to achieving fluency. Stop worrying about minutiae. Given what we know about the brain today, this is solid advice.
2) Start reading a book that's interesting to you at the very beginning of your journey. Can't understand a thing? No problem. Work at every sentence until you get the gist (you don't need to understand every single word) and keep building upon this success from there. This point in particular is something that makes sense, and something that would make learning more interesting, and fun. You don't see this kind of advice emphasized a lot. People tend to recommend children's books to beginners.
With all of that said, there are two concepts in this book that are worth taking away:
1) The brain is very good at figuring shit out. Feed it lots of input (like books), and you'll be on your way to achieving fluency. Stop worrying about minutiae. Given what we know about the brain today, this is solid advice.
2) Start reading a book that's interesting to you at the very beginning of your journey. Can't understand a thing? No problem. Work at every sentence until you get the gist (you don't need to understand every single word) and keep building upon this success from there. This point in particular is something that makes sense, and something that would make learning more interesting, and fun. You don't see this kind of advice emphasized a lot. People tend to recommend children's books to beginners.
May 21, 2017
This book had a lot of insight, but it felt very scattered and repetitive at some points. Not only that, but some claims (particularly about men and women) I feel should be backed up by research and not just by anecdotes. Idk, that might just be me.
Also I found this amusing:
"Only those who are not introverted and not deterred from being in the limelight should become teachers and interpreters."
"An introverted and hesitant individual who is prone to self-criticism may only be suitable for translation work."
This introvert became a much better teacher than translator lol.
Anyway, despite it's shortcomings, I still think it's a fascinating read for linguaphiles!
Edit: Forgot to mention that the author promises us how to approach languages like Japanese differently, but then NEVER ACTUALLY DOES IT. :/
Also I found this amusing:
"Only those who are not introverted and not deterred from being in the limelight should become teachers and interpreters."
"An introverted and hesitant individual who is prone to self-criticism may only be suitable for translation work."
This introvert became a much better teacher than translator lol.
Anyway, despite it's shortcomings, I still think it's a fascinating read for linguaphiles!
Edit: Forgot to mention that the author promises us how to approach languages like Japanese differently, but then NEVER ACTUALLY DOES IT. :/
February 6, 2017
A very outdated account of one Hungarian woman's drive to learn many languages and its results, which she shares with the reader (the book was translated sometime in the 1970s). While her comments about interpreting seem all right, it is of course very difficult to judge whether she was a decent interpreter. Lots and lots of unnecessary details as well, and, most importantly, almost all ways of learning a foreign language now, more than forty years later, are completely different (all such things were different in a world with no Internet). There are a couple of funny stories, though (especially the one about the ornithologist lecturer and the student who interprets him: "Well, there's a hoopoe!"
No use to read today.
No use to read today.
May 6, 2018
This, obviously, is not an actual guide on how to learn languages, but rather an individual's story on her own adventure. I found is extremely interesting, because I love hearing about the languages other people can speak, and I felt validated, because I use much of the same methods, I agree with a lot of the advice given out.
Do I feel like I was left with a mind-boggling recipe for learning languages? No, but I have admiration and respect for Lomb, and maybe just the tiniest bit more motivation on my own.
I also think my own professors would rage in distress reading this.
Do I feel like I was left with a mind-boggling recipe for learning languages? No, but I have admiration and respect for Lomb, and maybe just the tiniest bit more motivation on my own.
I also think my own professors would rage in distress reading this.
July 5, 2021
Lots of interesting advice for people interested in language learning. As someone who has been engaged in some form of language learning for over 10 years by now (three different languages studied so far, all with very different methodologies), I felt like this book reflected a lot of the conclusions I have arrived at from personal experience (especially "just read and don't get bogged down with looking up each individual word in the dictionary").
Sadly, this book gets very bogged down with anecdotes (that feel completely made up at points), and the author tends to go on weird tangents that have nothing to do with what the chapter is about in the first place. It feels more like a blog post from the 70s.
Sadly, this book gets very bogged down with anecdotes (that feel completely made up at points), and the author tends to go on weird tangents that have nothing to do with what the chapter is about in the first place. It feels more like a blog post from the 70s.
February 22, 2018
Като Ломб - угорська поліглотка, філологиня, перекладачка, яка володіла 16тьма мовами. Книга про мови, як їх вивчати, навіщо, які проблеми виникають у процесі, та як потім доцільно використати ваші знання. Найголовніше - це бажання і приділення часу, вважає пані Ломб, і, здається, так необхідно ставитися до будь-якої справи. Також авторка ділиться купою філологічних цікавинок та описів перекладацьких казусів, що не може не тішити. Прочитала з натхненням людини, яка обожнює мови, та виникло бажання взятися знову за ті підручники і словники, які нехтувала останнім часом.
August 31, 2024
Doesn't exactly deliver on the title, but I am obsessed with this chaotic collection of throughly charming personality-filled linguistic anecdotes. She is the blueprint, and has encouraged me to focus more on reading for my language learning.
I hope I never learn more about her politics though, I had to compartmentalize an offhand reference to Henry Kissinger being "one of the most brilliant men of our age" 🤢🤮
I hope I never learn more about her politics though, I had to compartmentalize an offhand reference to Henry Kissinger being "one of the most brilliant men of our age" 🤢🤮
February 21, 2013
What's fascinating is Lomb, a 19 language polyglot, learned most of her languages at 30 or older. The book was written in the 1960s, but many of her observations about language learning are not only still relevant and true, but they have also been validated by current research on the brain, learning and memory.
Her strategy: pick up a book in another language and start reading it. Pick a book in the genre or topic you love and try to puzzle it out as you go. She believes you learn grammar from language, not vice versa. She believes memorizing words in isolation is inefficient and prone to failure, something that has been validated by research. She recommends that you need to spend around 10 hours a week learning the language and tells you to hold your breath if you're hoping you can do it mainly through conversing (unless you pay someone, no native can realistically commit to such a thing).
All in all, an inspiring read for aspiring polyglots. You can read it pretty fast and each chapter acts like a self-contained lesson or a rambling series of stories (she alternates between these two formats in her chapters), so it's easy to skip around or skip certain sections entirely. Another bonus: you can read it online for free or download it as a PDF.
Her strategy: pick up a book in another language and start reading it. Pick a book in the genre or topic you love and try to puzzle it out as you go. She believes you learn grammar from language, not vice versa. She believes memorizing words in isolation is inefficient and prone to failure, something that has been validated by research. She recommends that you need to spend around 10 hours a week learning the language and tells you to hold your breath if you're hoping you can do it mainly through conversing (unless you pay someone, no native can realistically commit to such a thing).
All in all, an inspiring read for aspiring polyglots. You can read it pretty fast and each chapter acts like a self-contained lesson or a rambling series of stories (she alternates between these two formats in her chapters), so it's easy to skip around or skip certain sections entirely. Another bonus: you can read it online for free or download it as a PDF.
March 7, 2016
This book is a bit all over the place, but the author's humour and her delight in languages and learning more than make up for it. This isn't quite an autobiography but it's also not a textbook either. The author talks about her journey, how she fell into languages and happily stayed there, sharing numerous anecdotes along the way. She touches on some theoretical aspects of language learning, bursting a few myths along the way (like being too old or not having a gift for it), breaking the recipe for success down to a simple equation: (Invested Time + Motivation)/Inhibition = Result.
Later in the book she talks about more practical aspects of language learning such as vocabulary building or conversations, though the most interesting chapter for me was when she details her own learning style: right from the beginning, when jumping into a new language she uses literature to intuit meaning and the rules of the language. Nowadays there is a lot of emphasis on speaking and it is refreshing to read about an approach with such a strong focus on spending a lot of time immersed in books.
Considering the book was first published in 1970 it's also interesting to see how many of these strategies are now proven to hold water (mnemonics, comprehensible input, etc.).
Later in the book she talks about more practical aspects of language learning such as vocabulary building or conversations, though the most interesting chapter for me was when she details her own learning style: right from the beginning, when jumping into a new language she uses literature to intuit meaning and the rules of the language. Nowadays there is a lot of emphasis on speaking and it is refreshing to read about an approach with such a strong focus on spending a lot of time immersed in books.
Considering the book was first published in 1970 it's also interesting to see how many of these strategies are now proven to hold water (mnemonics, comprehensible input, etc.).
August 15, 2009
Very interesting stuff. I've always been interested in languages and would like to learn several (at least!). Ms. Lomb presents a very intriguing and practical method of attacking a foreign language.
My only qualm with the book is that it seems to take her a long time to get around to actually describing her learning method. Much of the book is fraught with personal and hearsay anecdotes that, while interesting, are more fluff than substance.
That said, it's a quick read and worth scanning through if you are looking to learn a new language in an efficient manner.
My only qualm with the book is that it seems to take her a long time to get around to actually describing her learning method. Much of the book is fraught with personal and hearsay anecdotes that, while interesting, are more fluff than substance.
That said, it's a quick read and worth scanning through if you are looking to learn a new language in an efficient manner.
February 9, 2017
Absolute disappointment. Mostly ramblings and loosely related stories about people who speak several languages and her own adventures as an interpreter, loads of random metaphors what language is. Change the misleading title, ignore the patronizing tone, lack of structure and some outdated views, you might actually be happy to find a couple of pages worth practical information on how to learn languages. Really not worth your time. Perhaps I'm a tad harsh, that's the disappointment speaking.
February 17, 2013
Polyglots is knowing or using several languages; (of a book) having text translated into several languages; a person who knows and is able to use several languages. PUAHAHAHAHA some of you might be thinking I will elaborate polyglots mean whole paragraphs! Got youuuu!
By the way it is nice knowing some people in the world intuitively learn languages even they achieve languages in earlier age or might be they have mastered languages since toddler. One word, envy… Yes exactly I am. I was not able to speak any language since kindergarten although I was surrounded by expatriates who were also my father’s associates in businesses. Frankly I didn’t feel triggered to learn any languages except Minang language, a traditional language of my father-mother ancestors, moreover my grandmother fluently speaks up in Minang and always summons me the way Minang language is. How come I can’t speak Minang fluently then?
Anyway, the first foreign language I learnt is English. I got lessons formal and informal way from school and my father’s note-phone conversation nailed on the wall above our home telephone in case one of English men called my father and the nearest somebody was obliged to answer by following well-written scenario on the wall. Everyone was scared including me. Hell yeah, every time phone rang in living room we (my brother and little sister) leaped and run away until my mother answered and everything back to normal as usual. Everyone had new mental illness we named answering-telephone-PHOBIA. But that was temporarily behavior of course. For god’s sake nobody would be brave enough until we got grounded for ignoring phone ringing when our parent weren’t home.
By the time we got used to answer telephone, whoever he was, and mostly English Man who called us could understand our obstacle in language. Miraculously he spoke Indonesia that time and made me amaze how could a bizarre person, I could hardly recognize, spoke in my language in order to smoothen conversation already made? That was unbelievable, uncertain, just a dream. I was third grader at that time knowing nothing at all. Impressed by that Bule (named for all English men) I found an idea to learn english more and finally I had my first english class six months after whining to my mother to register myself at xxxx English Course in town. I’d got companies with me, several friends also wanted to learn. Yeah I was just a boy, standing in front of a class, leaving class forever after 3 months suffering from bully… I officially stopped learning when I was going to fifth grader. What ashamed, but my childhood was just like wanderer who wandered to one place to others and forgot the previous ones. I was never persistence since English still uncountable factor of deciding a child will success, according to that term and several occasions. Then I self-learning-ed myself until I went to junior high school.
Yet before I entered junior high school my calling to learn English still flashed on, accidentally, I found my first English book about America History. I was eleventh year-old and bewildered by many vocabularies I found every time I read a word. It was a destiny, I am supposed to believe, because the next birthday of twelfth I got my first electronic dictionary. A sophisticated thing I’d ever had, the first and the only thing I loved since (may it rest in peace). You probably thought I would read that book after grabbing edictionary? Wrong…. Once again I was a boy, looking at a new thing, trashing an old thing. Lol…. But briefly, after months I played with my edictionary I hit that book and finished it year later. So much story I got to tell because I was also read Mark Twain’s book at the same time, a thinny little book covered by nets and dusts.
Unfortunately, I still got worse grade in English. Can you imagine that? I never failed in mathematics, though. But I always failed in English. I knew why, because I didn’t feel connected to English and shrugged off the lessons, every lesson, I got left behind than others. That didn’t matter at all, I thought I was not that talented in language. Until I read, a couple days ago, kato lomb said we didn’t need innate ability to learn language. Yes I already knew it when I was Senior High School. I didn’t have any innate ability. I was well-known of being mouthy and uncontrollable “spokesman” for everything (I was a student council member, treasurer … Also Secretary of Teenage First Aid Organization… and others). And I loved history, geography, and sociology. I knew it being mouthy and hyperactive in organizations also loved to memorize advantaged me to master English, because Kato Lomb said Mouthy is an active learner… I don’t know… I just knew it subconsciously when I wrote this paragraph. I knew I could master English… But subconsciously.
Yeah, Kato Lomb made me think now. She was right. I’ve already knew I love English, but how to improve it? How to make it as life earner? Or profession? Career?… I don’t know what to do next. I was 18th at that time and already entered university. At university I found bunches of English literatures. I needed new edictionary I thought and finally bought one. Like a child again I played a new thing and forgot old things (books which were supposed to get translated). Meanwhile I had my new hobby playing dictionary and reading English Books (again). I felt saturated from beginning starting new class in campus. I preferred to travelling or resting alone while watching movies. And once again Kato Lomb was right. I need to stick up with my hobby, thrive it to suppress depression inside me and keep moving on instead of settling down in nowhere of aims. Yes, I will find myself full of encumbrance if I learn English, watch English, or write English.
I didn’t know whether it was destined or not. That was early 2008 I just realized my new dictionary had other languages to translate to. It was Japanese language. I’d already known it was Japanese but no intention to master it. And once upon a time, I was being surged by my first Japanese song. Suikoden 2 RPG game OST and Final Fantasy OST, those were my favorite. And finally I took private class during my holiday after 2nd semester finished. I learnt from teacher from my hometown for one and half month. And my misery begun. Sensei (I called him so) ordered me to attend class every single day for one monthlong at 6.30 am morning! We learnt around 2 hours everyday and extra hours for reading comprehension. I was never given textbook, a book written by himself to teach. I had to copy to book manually hand-writing. I was tortured dreadfully everyday, but I stood still without despondence. I wished I could have had him again as Sensei.
Yes, it was around 4 years ago. I never saw him anymore. Last time before we were saying good bye, he advised me to keep learning. Life imposed me almost 5 years recently including my 24 SKS (at least 26-28 hours a week-class not including papers, assignments and must-read literatures involved) almost several semesters forward, remained me unbearable tiredness. I did entering new Japanese class in my university, luckily my university has culture and language learning center. But I am not satisfied enough……. I can say Sensei had read Kato Lomb’s book so that he knew better how to push me “fiercely” to learn. I was shy to see him, because I didn’t do his last advice.
Last year November 2012 I was listening to online radio. And I’ve heard an undistinguishable song and language but so touchy. I didn’t know what song it was and how to spell the lyrics. Fortunately I could stalk the song title. It was ‘Chanson Triste’ in English ‘Sad Song’. It was French… I was aroused for the umpteenth times to learn a new language. What I am supposed to do? Then I ignored my passion awhile. It probably was my desire but it would be useless if I did succumb like I did in Japanese. I felt overwhelmed every time I listened to the song. And finally for last not the least I got another destiny to read Kato Lomb’s Book. I got issues here first my learning method and my willingness. Like Kato Lomb said I was an ALL, one of the ALLs. But it encouraged me to find what really I am in language. Like the old times I found an English book and was given an edictionary, figured out my first Kanji in Japanese literature or first time heard French song. Those all were not my whole destined, it was the intention to be who really I am actually. I am lucky for reading a book from the best polyglot ever in the earth. I think I am gonna hit my Japanese first day tomorrow to revive mine. Then proceed to French since nothing can hamper me right now. Probably others language……..*thinking.
I don’t believe there is [an innate ability for learning languages] –Kato Lomb
By the way it is nice knowing some people in the world intuitively learn languages even they achieve languages in earlier age or might be they have mastered languages since toddler. One word, envy… Yes exactly I am. I was not able to speak any language since kindergarten although I was surrounded by expatriates who were also my father’s associates in businesses. Frankly I didn’t feel triggered to learn any languages except Minang language, a traditional language of my father-mother ancestors, moreover my grandmother fluently speaks up in Minang and always summons me the way Minang language is. How come I can’t speak Minang fluently then?
Anyway, the first foreign language I learnt is English. I got lessons formal and informal way from school and my father’s note-phone conversation nailed on the wall above our home telephone in case one of English men called my father and the nearest somebody was obliged to answer by following well-written scenario on the wall. Everyone was scared including me. Hell yeah, every time phone rang in living room we (my brother and little sister) leaped and run away until my mother answered and everything back to normal as usual. Everyone had new mental illness we named answering-telephone-PHOBIA. But that was temporarily behavior of course. For god’s sake nobody would be brave enough until we got grounded for ignoring phone ringing when our parent weren’t home.
By the time we got used to answer telephone, whoever he was, and mostly English Man who called us could understand our obstacle in language. Miraculously he spoke Indonesia that time and made me amaze how could a bizarre person, I could hardly recognize, spoke in my language in order to smoothen conversation already made? That was unbelievable, uncertain, just a dream. I was third grader at that time knowing nothing at all. Impressed by that Bule (named for all English men) I found an idea to learn english more and finally I had my first english class six months after whining to my mother to register myself at xxxx English Course in town. I’d got companies with me, several friends also wanted to learn. Yeah I was just a boy, standing in front of a class, leaving class forever after 3 months suffering from bully… I officially stopped learning when I was going to fifth grader. What ashamed, but my childhood was just like wanderer who wandered to one place to others and forgot the previous ones. I was never persistence since English still uncountable factor of deciding a child will success, according to that term and several occasions. Then I self-learning-ed myself until I went to junior high school.
Yet before I entered junior high school my calling to learn English still flashed on, accidentally, I found my first English book about America History. I was eleventh year-old and bewildered by many vocabularies I found every time I read a word. It was a destiny, I am supposed to believe, because the next birthday of twelfth I got my first electronic dictionary. A sophisticated thing I’d ever had, the first and the only thing I loved since (may it rest in peace). You probably thought I would read that book after grabbing edictionary? Wrong…. Once again I was a boy, looking at a new thing, trashing an old thing. Lol…. But briefly, after months I played with my edictionary I hit that book and finished it year later. So much story I got to tell because I was also read Mark Twain’s book at the same time, a thinny little book covered by nets and dusts.
Unfortunately, I still got worse grade in English. Can you imagine that? I never failed in mathematics, though. But I always failed in English. I knew why, because I didn’t feel connected to English and shrugged off the lessons, every lesson, I got left behind than others. That didn’t matter at all, I thought I was not that talented in language. Until I read, a couple days ago, kato lomb said we didn’t need innate ability to learn language. Yes I already knew it when I was Senior High School. I didn’t have any innate ability. I was well-known of being mouthy and uncontrollable “spokesman” for everything (I was a student council member, treasurer … Also Secretary of Teenage First Aid Organization… and others). And I loved history, geography, and sociology. I knew it being mouthy and hyperactive in organizations also loved to memorize advantaged me to master English, because Kato Lomb said Mouthy is an active learner… I don’t know… I just knew it subconsciously when I wrote this paragraph. I knew I could master English… But subconsciously.
Yeah, Kato Lomb made me think now. She was right. I’ve already knew I love English, but how to improve it? How to make it as life earner? Or profession? Career?… I don’t know what to do next. I was 18th at that time and already entered university. At university I found bunches of English literatures. I needed new edictionary I thought and finally bought one. Like a child again I played a new thing and forgot old things (books which were supposed to get translated). Meanwhile I had my new hobby playing dictionary and reading English Books (again). I felt saturated from beginning starting new class in campus. I preferred to travelling or resting alone while watching movies. And once again Kato Lomb was right. I need to stick up with my hobby, thrive it to suppress depression inside me and keep moving on instead of settling down in nowhere of aims. Yes, I will find myself full of encumbrance if I learn English, watch English, or write English.
I didn’t know whether it was destined or not. That was early 2008 I just realized my new dictionary had other languages to translate to. It was Japanese language. I’d already known it was Japanese but no intention to master it. And once upon a time, I was being surged by my first Japanese song. Suikoden 2 RPG game OST and Final Fantasy OST, those were my favorite. And finally I took private class during my holiday after 2nd semester finished. I learnt from teacher from my hometown for one and half month. And my misery begun. Sensei (I called him so) ordered me to attend class every single day for one monthlong at 6.30 am morning! We learnt around 2 hours everyday and extra hours for reading comprehension. I was never given textbook, a book written by himself to teach. I had to copy to book manually hand-writing. I was tortured dreadfully everyday, but I stood still without despondence. I wished I could have had him again as Sensei.
Yes, it was around 4 years ago. I never saw him anymore. Last time before we were saying good bye, he advised me to keep learning. Life imposed me almost 5 years recently including my 24 SKS (at least 26-28 hours a week-class not including papers, assignments and must-read literatures involved) almost several semesters forward, remained me unbearable tiredness. I did entering new Japanese class in my university, luckily my university has culture and language learning center. But I am not satisfied enough……. I can say Sensei had read Kato Lomb’s book so that he knew better how to push me “fiercely” to learn. I was shy to see him, because I didn’t do his last advice.
Last year November 2012 I was listening to online radio. And I’ve heard an undistinguishable song and language but so touchy. I didn’t know what song it was and how to spell the lyrics. Fortunately I could stalk the song title. It was ‘Chanson Triste’ in English ‘Sad Song’. It was French… I was aroused for the umpteenth times to learn a new language. What I am supposed to do? Then I ignored my passion awhile. It probably was my desire but it would be useless if I did succumb like I did in Japanese. I felt overwhelmed every time I listened to the song. And finally for last not the least I got another destiny to read Kato Lomb’s Book. I got issues here first my learning method and my willingness. Like Kato Lomb said I was an ALL, one of the ALLs. But it encouraged me to find what really I am in language. Like the old times I found an English book and was given an edictionary, figured out my first Kanji in Japanese literature or first time heard French song. Those all were not my whole destined, it was the intention to be who really I am actually. I am lucky for reading a book from the best polyglot ever in the earth. I think I am gonna hit my Japanese first day tomorrow to revive mine. Then proceed to French since nothing can hamper me right now. Probably others language……..*thinking.
I don’t believe there is [an innate ability for learning languages] –Kato Lomb
January 7, 2022
not the first time I've read this book - though it's the first time I've logged it on GoodReads, apparently.
very interesting overview of how Kato Lomb learned ~16 languages (and interpreted in 10) - basically textbook + comprehensible input + practise and make sure you're interested in it. Solid method that is espoused by lots of language learning 'gurus' nowadays, but this has no frills.
4.5 / 5 - I love the book - it has a LOT of useful and accessible information, as well as fun anecdotes -but the section on men and women and their approaches to languages is very outdated (with no update to mention that, for example, studies in English prove that women, in fact, speak less than men, generalisations about women changing their speech when men approach, etc. Obviously just a product of its time, but something to be aware of).
very interesting overview of how Kato Lomb learned ~16 languages (and interpreted in 10) - basically textbook + comprehensible input + practise and make sure you're interested in it. Solid method that is espoused by lots of language learning 'gurus' nowadays, but this has no frills.
4.5 / 5 - I love the book - it has a LOT of useful and accessible information, as well as fun anecdotes -but the section on men and women and their approaches to languages is very outdated (with no update to mention that, for example, studies in English prove that women, in fact, speak less than men, generalisations about women changing their speech when men approach, etc. Obviously just a product of its time, but something to be aware of).
February 17, 2021
I have been reading this book for a long time. I downloaded it to my phone around my freshman year and started reading it when I didn’t have internet access to read other things, usually whenever I was on an airplane.
This book is a quiet delight to read, and Kató Lomb has a lovely turn of phrase in English (and, I imagine, in her other languages as well). I can’t give an accurate impression of the entire book, since I’ve been inching through it over at least the last three years, but I was always happy to come back to it whenever I remembered it was tucked away in my book app. Throughout all the time I’ve been reading it, it has felt like sitting down to talk with the author over a cup of tea. I will very likely read this again sometime, though I think I’ll acquire a hard copy for next time.
This book is a quiet delight to read, and Kató Lomb has a lovely turn of phrase in English (and, I imagine, in her other languages as well). I can’t give an accurate impression of the entire book, since I’ve been inching through it over at least the last three years, but I was always happy to come back to it whenever I remembered it was tucked away in my book app. Throughout all the time I’ve been reading it, it has felt like sitting down to talk with the author over a cup of tea. I will very likely read this again sometime, though I think I’ll acquire a hard copy for next time.
January 23, 2022
It was clear at a certain moment that this was not going to be a direct instruction on how to learn languages. I loved Lomb's stories, however, and hearing what she had to say on learning them; especially since I actually realised (belatedly) that my learning throught crazily reading, or rather, forcing my way throught books is an actual studying method. Though, according to Lomb, I am the silly little student abusing their dictionary for every single encountered word, which is an unnecessary mistake on my part, apparently. I learned English that way, but I admit - not from ground zero.
I'm happy I came to know this book, and the facts and anecdotes and stories it presented. Some lifted my spirits, other really ignited my interest in polyglots, also some of those the author was mentioning by names, and their works (if any). It inspired me to go down this lane to learn more about them and polyglots overall. And try out Kató Lomb's method for once, from ground zero, of course.
Of which almost nothing was written, and I am confused af, but I hope internet will know something more about it.
You don't realise how happy I am my obssesion for reading doesn't know the boundary of foreign languages. I was thus happy to agree with some of Lomb's believes, since we share this trait & I immediately felt a connection, but I admit that there were more or less little stuff I did not agree with her on. Kató Lomb was a great, impressive person of high intelligence anyway (bc what do you call it) and it is always a delight to read such a person's thoughts.
Nevertheless, the book was a bit difficult to read. It (the book) was also surprising at the beginning, since it was not what I thought it would be, and even then it was too little of a guide/instruction on Lomb's method. I wish she would speak about it more, especially given the title.
I'm happy I came to know this book, and the facts and anecdotes and stories it presented. Some lifted my spirits, other really ignited my interest in polyglots, also some of those the author was mentioning by names, and their works (if any). It inspired me to go down this lane to learn more about them and polyglots overall. And try out Kató Lomb's method for once, from ground zero, of course.
Of which almost nothing was written, and I am confused af, but I hope internet will know something more about it.
You don't realise how happy I am my obssesion for reading doesn't know the boundary of foreign languages. I was thus happy to agree with some of Lomb's believes, since we share this trait & I immediately felt a connection, but I admit that there were more or less little stuff I did not agree with her on. Kató Lomb was a great, impressive person of high intelligence anyway (bc what do you call it) and it is always a delight to read such a person's thoughts.
Nevertheless, the book was a bit difficult to read. It (the book) was also surprising at the beginning, since it was not what I thought it would be, and even then it was too little of a guide/instruction on Lomb's method. I wish she would speak about it more, especially given the title.
April 29, 2024
Leitura obrigatória para quem se interessa pelo aprendizado de línguas.
Achei de uma má-fé absoluta pessoas nos reviews duvidando que essa mulher pudesse ter aprendido, por exemplo, chinês, sendo que ela explicitamente conta como começou a estudar a língua. As pessoas não leram o livro de verdade. Achei tudo muito proveitoso, se há superficialidade ou randomicidade é porque não dava de falar sobre tudo o que ela viveu e entendeu sobre aprender novas línguas. Mas o que fica é o arroz com feijão: comprehensible input, comprehensible input e comprehensible input :P
Achei de uma má-fé absoluta pessoas nos reviews duvidando que essa mulher pudesse ter aprendido, por exemplo, chinês, sendo que ela explicitamente conta como começou a estudar a língua. As pessoas não leram o livro de verdade. Achei tudo muito proveitoso, se há superficialidade ou randomicidade é porque não dava de falar sobre tudo o que ela viveu e entendeu sobre aprender novas línguas. Mas o que fica é o arroz com feijão: comprehensible input, comprehensible input e comprehensible input :P
March 13, 2019
I picked up this book several times over the last six years, I always felt it had beaucoup de content, but in the end it didn’t deliver and my high expectations were not fulfilled, which is not to say that she doesn’t offer sound advice, just that I was left underwhelmed
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