I’ve spent a few hours this morning checking out the website and Youtube channel of Alexander Arguelles, one of the hyperpolyglot subjects of Michael Erard’s new book Babel No More(due for release early next month).
Arguelles’ website doesn’t seem to state his conversational ability in the 38 languages he lists as ‘known’ (quite a few of them aren’t living languages after all) but his reading level for them all is veryimpressive.
The amount of time and effort he puts into language maintenance despite being a working academic with a wife and kids is something that really puts me to shame.
Have a look at this promotional video from the Babel No More website which will give you a glimpse of his remarkably disciplined self-study regimen:
What really got me interested in Alexander Arguelles is his use of the method that he calls shadowing (a method which despite being ascribed to him I’ve been using myself for the last 8 years and termed parroting).
To sum it up succinctly, it’s repeating a portion of native-speaker dialogue verbatim and almost simultaneously, using the target and teaching language transcriptions of the dialogue for reference.
Instead of me poorly trying to explain what I mean just have a look at Alexander’s demonstration using Mandarin Chinese:
Essentially, you’ve got a native-speaker dialogue playing through your earphones and as you hear it, even if you don’t understand a word of it, you’re repeating the sounds at the same time and using transcriptions for meaning and clarity.
It’s basically learning another language in a way that’s similar to how you learned your first language – repeating sounds exactly as you hear them. It’s the best way not only tomaster colloquial speech, but accent and intonation as well.
Shadowing is also a training technique used by some conference interpreters.
The importance of talking while walking
Arguelles also emphasizes the importance of walking while doing this, rather than sitting at a desk but in my opinion he doesn’t offer a satisfactory explanation for why this helps. Remember how I talked about automatic and controlled processes in the brain? It’s very difficult to speak a language that you don’t know well while performing another activity (talking while driving for example) and it’s only through lots of practice that you can improve this.
Walking while shadowing language is directly challenging your brain to comprehend new linguistic input and to automate this process.
Instead of starting off with a typical, structured product or a grammar book I’ve decided to take real, native-speaker dialogue (several TG4 interviews with people from the Gealtacht and some Ros Na Run episodes on Youtube) and to shadow parts of it repeatedly.
Only after I can imitate sections of the dialogue with accuracy and good accent do I consult the transcription and a dictionary.
I’m deliberately avoiding grammar books and structured programs for a few weeks to see how effective this strategy is by itself.
I’ll leave you with this long video of Alexander Arguelles discussing the technique of shadowing:
Comments: If you’ve got something you’d like to add to this or some constructive criticism you can do that at the bottom of this page. Just please be respectful. Any abusive or nonsensical comments will be deleted.
What makes a person a good, strategic language learner?
Why do some people do really well at learning foreign languages while other people don’t? I’m going to share 7 essential characteristics of a good, strategic language learner with you that I believe determine the success or failure of any language learning endeavor.
A good, strategic language learner first of all isn’t afraid to take risks and look stupid. One of the biggest challenges for people wanting to learn another language is the fear of looking or sounding ridiculous when making mistakes or having poor pronunciation. The good, strategic language learner doesn’t care what other people think and is determined to give it their best no matter how dumb they feel.
2. They constantly practice, even when they don’t feel like it.
There are days and weeks when the last thing I feel like doing is going over vocabulary or practicing my foreign language skills. A rest is good, but long periods of doing nothing is detrimental. I push myself to study by reminding myself of my goals or finding something that inspires me to continue.
To give you an example, when I studied French and went through periods of not feeling like doing any study, I looked at tourist websites for France and let the travel bug drive up my inspiration to learn the language. Even watching a movie like Bourne Identity was enough to make me want to hit the books.
3. They are able to overcome boredom.
This is closely related to the previous point but it’s important enough to be a point of its own. After the honeymoon period of language learning is over (the beginner stage when everything’s exciting and new, and motivation is high), you’ll hit a plateau around your intermediate level that can be extremely boring. This is when you feel like you’re not learning much.
A good, strategic language learner can find creative ways to keep it interesting.
4. They are good self-assessors.
One of the key attributes of any good learner is their ability to assess their own strengths and weaknesses, and to constructively criticize their own approach.
I consider myself to be a very good language learner with my own personal methods that I’ve picked up over the years but I’m always reading and listening to other people – even less experienced language learners – for different ideas.
You also need to pay close attention to where your weaknesses are (e.g. good speaker, terrible at reading) and adjust your approach accordingly.
5. They are good guessers.
Every experienced language learner has had to be able to guess what people are saying or what a piece of writing is about from the context. If you know more than 60-70% of the vocabulary used then you’ve got a pretty good chance of taking a stab at it.
A good, strategic language learner isn’t afraid to make a guess but also isn’t careless enough to nod and pretend to understand (we’re all guilty here don’t worry).
6. They spend the right amount of time working on all skill areas – speaking, listening, reading and writing.
I spoke Egyptian Arabic before I could read well. Part of the problem was that another dialect (MSA) is used for writing and it’s significantly different to the colloquial dialects. However, I could have and should have focused on both areas.
A good, strategic language learner makes sure to devote time to all areas of skill development.
7. They find creative ways to test out new knowledge.
Finally, a good, strategic language learner seeks out creative and fun ways to test out the stuff he or she has learned.
For example, learn all the language you need to get a haircut then go out and get a haircut straight away so you can use it all while it’s fresh in your memory.
If you’re not in a foreign country and can’t do this sort of thing, find a Skype language exchange partner, teach yourself all the vocab and expressions you need to discuss a particular topic and then chat to them straight away and use it.
Practice your reading and writing creatively by writing a story or reading some interesting articles online. I practiced my Arabic writing skills by writing love letters to an Egyptian girl I was keen on at the time.
Can you think of any other characteristics of a good, strategic language learner?
Comments: If you’ve got something you’d like to add to this or some constructive criticism you can do that at the bottom of this page. Just please be respectful. Any abusive or nonsensical comments will be deleted.
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I’ve spent a few hours this morning checking out the website and Youtube channel of Alexander Arguelles, one of the hyperpolyglot subjects of Michael Erard’s new book Babel No More (due for release early next month).
What really got me interested in Alexander Arguelles is his use of the method that he calls shadowing (a method which despite being ascribed to him I’ve been using myself for the last 8 years and termed parroting).
Mary Jane Burton
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