Your "slow learning" approach is brilliant. I've really enjoyed reading how you thoughtfully apply so many concepts of Second Language Acquisition/Applied Linguistics. You've found the best way for you to meaningful engage with the language and deeply master the meaning and form. I'm inspired by your work-ethic...I find I'm constantly trying to balance taking enough notes with keeping it "fun" and "light." When I get too ambitious, I burn out. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you for the wonderful feedback! I can very much relate to the burn-out concept and will raise you "self-imposed pressure"! LOL! Sometimes I also make wild and unfounded assumptions about where I should be in my journey based on the length of time I've spent studying, and it's just not helpful! Keeping it light and fun is likely as important to the brain and to SLA as any serious study and I'll have to remind myself to take that approach more often!
This was beautiful, thank you! I absolutely agree with you. There are so many different ways to learn a language these days, and to settle or focus on only one, is to do a great disservice to your language learning over time. I wrote a whole thesis about this, and I felt as if I only scratched the surface. It was about Latin pedagogy over the last 2000 years, and it focused on some of these issues, between the "grammar" school and the "spoken Latin" school. I'll be writing my own story of teaching myself Latin over the years sooner than later, but I've found many of things you point out here to be true for me as well. Although I'm a big fan of speaking Latin, and I speak it a little myself, I also see how it can be used as a crutch where no one is learning grammar, or, it's an extremely slow process, especially for an adult. Furthermore, trying to find the "perfect" method is also a fool's errand, because so many of us learn differently, and who's to say if it worked for me it will automatically work for you? I've had the same experience, working in Lingua Latina, desperately trying to "stay in the target language" and then eventually saying, "screw it, I'm going to an English dictionary!" It's not a sin to fall back on your native language. If the greatest Latinist of all time (Erasmus) did so, then so shall I! I've come to discover, there's often not a lot of nuance to these arguments.
I say, take your time, find something that works for you, and go at it one day at a time. Language learning should be enjoyable, not torture.
Thanks for that wonderful reply! I would definitely be interested in your Latin-learning journey, so hopefully you're intending to write it on Substack!
I know precisely what you mean about trying to "stay in the target language." An autodidact I watched on YouTube a few years ago (though I don't remember her name now) even suggested taking notes in your target language. I tried it as far as I was able. It was sometimes helpful insofar as writing a definition in Latin (i.e., reaching for a synonym you know), but if I were studying grammar and syntax, it became infinitely harder to try to explain a concept I was noting down in the Latin that I had.
Totally agree with your perspective around taking time and finding something that works. I think that's both the wonderful and the frustrating part - language learning is a longtime commitment. It could take years to gain true proficiency!
Thank you for the tips - I am definitely taking my Old English sloooooow. Taking my time and not pressuring myself because why not? I had to crack down and study French for years and years for grades and a qualifying exam for my PhD and just want to enjoy OE.
I enjoyed reading about your different language learning experiences - thanks for sharing.
OMG, yes, I totally relate. The whole grad school experience of having to pass language exams, but in the most inorganic and pressure-cooker way possible, seemingly defeats the purpose of acquiring proficiency in a language in the first place, IMO. In the Latin summer bootcamp I was in, some of my peers were going to try to sit their first Latin exam in the fall (this was one of two Latin exams alongside two modern language exams that needed to be passed, and the first of the two Latin exams was to be written without a dictionary!). Suffice to say, I saluted their bravery from the bleachers!
Incredible work! I am so ashamed of myself. I have the books you mentioned and they lie about the dust of desk. You are so committed. Life gets in the way for me… but I live in the Netherlands and I’m Scottish so the translation of the vocabulary is sneakily easier for a lazy scholar 😛I love seeing the language drifts across the ocean and through time.
What a kind reply! Honestly, I think this approach was simply inspired by the fact that my brain was resisting structure. In fact, I think my brain just resists it by default! And don't be ashamed! We do what we can when we can! And if we don't do it, that's OK too! I'm trying to tell myself that very thing this year because I often get caught up in the "should dos."
Your "slow learning" approach is brilliant. I've really enjoyed reading how you thoughtfully apply so many concepts of Second Language Acquisition/Applied Linguistics. You've found the best way for you to meaningful engage with the language and deeply master the meaning and form. I'm inspired by your work-ethic...I find I'm constantly trying to balance taking enough notes with keeping it "fun" and "light." When I get too ambitious, I burn out. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you for the wonderful feedback! I can very much relate to the burn-out concept and will raise you "self-imposed pressure"! LOL! Sometimes I also make wild and unfounded assumptions about where I should be in my journey based on the length of time I've spent studying, and it's just not helpful! Keeping it light and fun is likely as important to the brain and to SLA as any serious study and I'll have to remind myself to take that approach more often!
This was beautiful, thank you! I absolutely agree with you. There are so many different ways to learn a language these days, and to settle or focus on only one, is to do a great disservice to your language learning over time. I wrote a whole thesis about this, and I felt as if I only scratched the surface. It was about Latin pedagogy over the last 2000 years, and it focused on some of these issues, between the "grammar" school and the "spoken Latin" school. I'll be writing my own story of teaching myself Latin over the years sooner than later, but I've found many of things you point out here to be true for me as well. Although I'm a big fan of speaking Latin, and I speak it a little myself, I also see how it can be used as a crutch where no one is learning grammar, or, it's an extremely slow process, especially for an adult. Furthermore, trying to find the "perfect" method is also a fool's errand, because so many of us learn differently, and who's to say if it worked for me it will automatically work for you? I've had the same experience, working in Lingua Latina, desperately trying to "stay in the target language" and then eventually saying, "screw it, I'm going to an English dictionary!" It's not a sin to fall back on your native language. If the greatest Latinist of all time (Erasmus) did so, then so shall I! I've come to discover, there's often not a lot of nuance to these arguments.
I say, take your time, find something that works for you, and go at it one day at a time. Language learning should be enjoyable, not torture.
Thanks again!
Thanks for that wonderful reply! I would definitely be interested in your Latin-learning journey, so hopefully you're intending to write it on Substack!
I know precisely what you mean about trying to "stay in the target language." An autodidact I watched on YouTube a few years ago (though I don't remember her name now) even suggested taking notes in your target language. I tried it as far as I was able. It was sometimes helpful insofar as writing a definition in Latin (i.e., reaching for a synonym you know), but if I were studying grammar and syntax, it became infinitely harder to try to explain a concept I was noting down in the Latin that I had.
Totally agree with your perspective around taking time and finding something that works. I think that's both the wonderful and the frustrating part - language learning is a longtime commitment. It could take years to gain true proficiency!
Thank you for the tips - I am definitely taking my Old English sloooooow. Taking my time and not pressuring myself because why not? I had to crack down and study French for years and years for grades and a qualifying exam for my PhD and just want to enjoy OE.
I enjoyed reading about your different language learning experiences - thanks for sharing.
OMG, yes, I totally relate. The whole grad school experience of having to pass language exams, but in the most inorganic and pressure-cooker way possible, seemingly defeats the purpose of acquiring proficiency in a language in the first place, IMO. In the Latin summer bootcamp I was in, some of my peers were going to try to sit their first Latin exam in the fall (this was one of two Latin exams alongside two modern language exams that needed to be passed, and the first of the two Latin exams was to be written without a dictionary!). Suffice to say, I saluted their bravery from the bleachers!
Incredible work! I am so ashamed of myself. I have the books you mentioned and they lie about the dust of desk. You are so committed. Life gets in the way for me… but I live in the Netherlands and I’m Scottish so the translation of the vocabulary is sneakily easier for a lazy scholar 😛I love seeing the language drifts across the ocean and through time.
What a kind reply! Honestly, I think this approach was simply inspired by the fact that my brain was resisting structure. In fact, I think my brain just resists it by default! And don't be ashamed! We do what we can when we can! And if we don't do it, that's OK too! I'm trying to tell myself that very thing this year because I often get caught up in the "should dos."