Sorry about the brief hiatus... But, We're Back!

Stay Tuned for an amended 'Becoming a Polyglot!'

Fancy learning 100 or more words a day??

Today, I will show YOU how one can learn, with enough creativity, ten's or hundred's of words a week!

I will outline to you many methods that have worked for many:

The sagacious Hungarian polyglot Kató Lomb was THE great advocator of context to deduce the meaning of words; the famous Lectoglot was thus named aptly "Kati Kontext" by her friends. Kató was a vociferous reader, and indulged in swallowing as many enjoyable works of foreign literature as she could to learn her languages.

In her book "Polyglot, How I Learn Languages" chapter 14, Kató suggests using First Language dictionaries to provide the meaning of the word, and an example of the word being used in a sentence. She suggests learning words that share the same root to draw connections and improve the connectivity and relationship of words, synonyms and antonyms can also be called upon. The autistic savant Daniel Tammet, speaker of over 10 languages, (having learnt Icelandic in a week), also advocates such "hyper-connectivity" highly when learning vocab. Her, is one such demonstration with French found in Kató's book:

abolition (manumission)

affected (maniéré)

begging (manche)

crank (manivelle)

cuff (manchette)

demonstration (manifestation)

demonstrator (manifestant)

to emancipate (émanciper)

handcuffs (menottes)

handle (manche)

to handle (manier)

handling (manutention)

horse training (manège)

to maintain (maintenir)

mandate (mandat)

manifesto (manifeste)

manipulation (manipulation)

manual (manuel)

manual labor/er (main-d’œuvre)

manufacture (manufacture)

manuscript (manuscrit)

muff (manchon)

now (maintenant)

one-armed man (manchot)

operator (manipulant)

Logic, thus far has been the tool used to build your vocabulary... Here comes the best bit... creativity!

The mind has a tendency to remember things better if say they are funny, scary or bizarre. In fact, any method that evokes the reaction of any or all of the senses proves to be worth while.

Have you ever suddenly when met by a smell been flooded with memories associated with your prior smelling of it?

This is where creativity rears its head.

Many people have over the years when revising for their exams, tried the technique of listening to a specific song when revising a certain subject matter. The theory being that when you are sitting your exam that all you'd have to do is recall the song, and along with it would be the connected facts. This, is an example that has proved useful for many... but we can do one better.

MNEMONICS & IMAGINATION

HOMES : Maybe you have seen this mnemonic phrase before, if not, HOMES, an easy to remember acronym... is a common example of how mnemonics can speed up memorisation.

Huron Ontario Michigan Eerie and Superior. Or, the 5 great lakes.

Here is another example:

This time using an entire sentence, to memorise the order of the colours' of the rainbow.

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain :

RED ORANGE YELLOW GREEN BLUE INDIGO VIOLET

Another such example is the use of RHYMES & CATCH PHRASES:

I before E, except after C...

Or when sounded like 'A' as in Neighbour and Weigh

Now, here is when it gets creative, sure it'll take effort and about 15 mins to create such a mnemonic, but, that same effort will make it stick in your mind.

Here is Stuart Jay Raj's creation from an interview in Tomisimo.

Minggu – You’re mingling in church on Sunday.
Senin – And then on Monday after church you go back to ’sinnin’.
Selasa – Then like an Italian waving his hands in the air, you exclaim ‘Selasa’ (at last) Monday is over!
Rabu – Then you call the ‘rabi’ to come and cleanse your sins.
Kamis – The rabi ‘comes’ (Kamis).
Jumat – The rabi performs a weird ritual by ‘jumping on the mat’ (Jumat) to cleanse the sins from Monday.
Sabtu – And then it’s the Sabbath… ready to go and mingle again the next day on Sunday (Minggu).

The above are only examples... the rest is in your hands... remember think full of emotion, humour or logic (if you prefer)... such methods... will get you learning many, many words daily. Reading alone sometimes allows you to learn many by context.

Passive Listening to Learn Languages??

Research published last year has revealed amazingly what many have always philosophised to be true...

The ground breaking research from Victoria University in New Zealand has revealed that listening to incomprehensible input, i.e. language that sounds like gibberish to you, can ameliorate your understanding of the foreign language over time, as new sound patterns are absorbed into the depths of the brain.

'However crazy it might sound, just listening to the language, even though you don't understand it, is critical,' study author Dr Paul Sulzberger said.

It seems obvious to many that our ability to learn and understand language will be improved by immersion to the sounds of the language that you are learning.

Babies, since birth are flooded by new sound patterns daily... by the time their required speech apparatus has developed they are all ready able to speak.

But can adults be language sponges akin to infants? The areas of the brain related to 2nd language acquisition the Wernicke's and Broca's area suffer from a phenomena called 'language plasticity,' where the brain's ability to adapt to new language learning for adults is stunted compared to children's because of lesser brain 'elasticity.'

Researchers from University College London have proven before that language learning "boosts brain power" Their experiment's "scans revealed the density of the grey matter in the left inferior parietal cortex of the brain was greater in bilinguals than in those without a second language."

So, the many benefits of language learning for the brain have been well-established, i.e. a reduced rate of contracting dementia earlier in life. But one mustn't forget also the many personal benefits of language learning, a new perspective can be gained on political issues (see Stu Jay Raj's recent post,) new light can be thrown on how your native language works and how you can improve your work, among others.

So, my advice to you all would be to create an environment that stimulates your language learning, and stretches those synapses. What could be easier for a Spanish learner to greatly improve their capacity, than to say, allowing Spanish TV shows or radio stations play in the background when at home, doing chores, crosswords or while relaxing. Eventually, after enough exposure, you will begin to hear breaks between the initially unceasing waves of sound, you will be able to feel a distinct rhythm and cadence, and finally you may even begin recognising words or speech patterns. One can greatly expedite their language learning through enjoyment and being in a relaxed environment... this background babble seems to fit the bill neatly.

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