What A Forest Monk Can Teach You About Language Learning
By thomas on Oct 19, 2007 in Motivation
Recently Khatzumoto over at All Japanese All The Time wrote a great article comparing language learning to boiling water. Khatzumoto’s metaphor reminded me a lot of one used by my favorite Thai forest monk Ajahn Chah. He said:
Nothing happens immediately, so in the beginning we can’t see any results from our practice. This is like the example I have often given you of the man who tries to make fire by rubbing two sticks of wood together. He says to himself, “They say there’s fire here.” and he begins rubbing energetically. He’s very impetuous. He rubs on and on but his impatience doesn’t end. He wants to have that fire. He keeps wanting to have that fire, but the fire doesn’t come. So he gets discouraged and stops to rest for awhile. He starts again but the going is slow, so he rests again. By then the heat has disappeared; he didn’t keep at it long enough. He rubs and rubs until he tires and then he stops altogether. Not only is he tired, but he becomes more and more discouraged until he gives up completely. “There’s no fire here!” Actually he was doing the work, but there wasn’t enough heat to start a fire. The fire was there all the time but he didn’t carry on to the end.
Of course Ajahn Chah was talking about meditation practice not language acquisition, but it’s easy to extend the metaphor to language learning. The potential for fluency in your target language is there. You have all the tools you need in order to achieve your goal. All that is left for you to do is to use your tools until you make that fire.
But you have to keep at it. Avoid the vicious cycle where you study enthusiastically for a month only to get bored and take a month off. If you do this, the heat will disappear! Another thing Ajahn Chah used to say regarding meditation practice is this:
Don’t worry whether you feel lazy or diligent. Don’t even say “I’m diligent” or “I’m lazy.” Most people practice only when they feel diligent, if they feel lazy they don’t bother. This is how people usually are. But monks shouldn’t think like that. If you are diligent you practice, when you are lazy you still practice.
Be language learning monks! If you feel motivated, great, start studying. If you feel you have no motivation, study anyway. Keep the momentum going so you don’t lose the heat you’ve worked so hard to create. Switch it up. If you’re bored to death of your Spanish textbook, pop in a Spanish DVD. Shadow an audio book in your target language. Listen to a podcast. Read Harry Potter. They’ve translated Harry Potter into Latin and Ancient Greek. I kid you not. Chances are they have it in your target language too. Keep rubbing those two sticks. Do whatever it takes to maintain consistent practice, and one day you will have your fire: fluency.
Nice post. This is why language learning outside of an immersion-type environment is so difficult. Nothing to force you to keep at it. Funny you mention Harry Potter–the first book in that series was one of the earliest books I tried reading in Thai, and probably like the third Thai book I read cover to cover.
In fact, this was my favorite way to grow my vocabulary: read translations of books I’ve read before in English. You can pick up a ton from context, though expect to still use the dictionary a lot for the first few chapters. It’s hard to get into the story sometimes if the language is too dense (I started The Hobbit in Thai two years ago and still haven’t made it past chapter 2), but once you do the momentum of the story will get you through to the end. It’s fun to look back after you’ve finished the book and see all the words you underlined in the first pages that you’re now able to use in daily conversation. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment. :)
rikker | Oct 20, 2007 | Reply
Thomas,
Congratulations on a very attractive and interesting blog. I would be happy to link with you. I will speak to Mark and figure out how we get you on our blogroll.
Steve Kaufmann | Oct 21, 2007 | Reply
I certainly agree that it’s important to be consistent in your language learning. One month of hardcore studying followed by a month (or more) of no studying is no more effective than doing a little each day and every day.
I have a job that keeps me extremely busy but I try to find at least 15 minutes each day to look at my study books or simply go over vocabulary I’d learnt the previous day. Studying on a busy rush-hour train is not the ideal place but sometimes that’s the only time I can find to delve into my language studies. I keep a little notebook of new vocabulary in my handbag so that I can revise new words when I have a spare moment.
If all else fails, I try to listen to some Japanese podcasts at work or at home or simply watch an episode or two of one of my favourite anime series, Bleach. Any input is better than none. ;)
Kelly | Oct 21, 2007 | Reply
Sorry guys for being so late on the comment replies. There’s an infant in the house :)
rikker: Reading novels is a good way to study while not making it seem like studying. I don’t do enough of it though. Actually, with a Japanese novel, I find that I have my nose in the dictionary more than in the book. It’s a side effect of not knowing all 2000 some-odd characters yet. It’s a big obstacle, because first I have to look up how to read the word before I can look up the definition.
Steve: Thanks for the kind words! I hope you’ll come back to read in the future.
Kelly: I’ve often studied on long train rides too, when I can get a seat that is. I used to try to keep vocab lists in notebooks, but I found that when I came back to them it was a mess. Now I draw funny little pictures for vocab words instead. Helps them stick in my head better, plus there are only eight per page at most so I don’t get lost in a sea of my bad handwriting.
thomas | Oct 24, 2007 | Reply