How not to learn a language

            One of my Chinese friends on QQ, told me about her experiences in learning English. She said that in high school she had done very well in learning English and was surprised to find she is not as well in college. She asked me, "How can I learn English quickly?" This blog is my response.

            First, I would like to tell you how to not learn a language. I failed to take a foreign language in high school. This happened for three reasons: first, my parents often moved so that my teachers had little opportunity to encourage me to enroll in language classes. For all four years of high school, I started in a school that did not offer a foreign language. Private schools, such as the one I attended 9th grade, were too small. My class in 9th grade consisted of nine students who were in both 9th and 10th grade in one small room. For the next three years, I started school in Yellville-Summit High School in Yellville, Arkansas, a small school with about 200 students and no foreign language teacher. Six weeks after I started 11th grade, my parents moved to Calabasas, California. As a new student, I did not enroll in a foreign language class.

            With that background, I started college. "You should study German," my professor/advisor told me. "Aside from English, which you already know, German is the language that is most widely used in science, aside from Latin. Latin is probably too obscure. French is not used as much in science. So, German makes the most sense." I felt confused. I was more interested in learning Spanish because my sister had married a man from Mexico who spoke Spanish fluently and I thought that I would never have an opportunity to speak German.

            At this point, recent world history becomes involved. Bear in mind that we're talking about the year 1970. The United States had only recently been at war with Germany. Many former American soldiers who were now community leaders had very negative feelings about the Germans and the Japanese. So, in that sense, anything related to Germany or Japan was somewhat unpopular. Little did I know that my Aunt Martha was born in Germany and spoke fluent German. She was delighted that I was studying German. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to speak with her in German because I could only understand for saying, "Wie gehts,” very poorly.

            This extensive background information is provided so you will understand my approach to studying German in college, and later, how I approached learning Spanish and Chinese. One thing I learned in college is how to not study a foreign language. First, I didn't study. As a new college student, I didn't know how to study. I was smart enough I rarely studied outside of class in high school, so in that sense I was unprepared for college and particularly underprepared for studying foreign language. I thought, incorrectly, that I could approach college the same way. I was desperately wrong. It took me almost a year and a half to learn how to study. As earlier blogs note, I would start tracking my time spent studying outside of class as a way to improve my grades. That worked wonderfully, but I failed to use that for most of the time that I studied German.

            Remember, this was 1970. The one computer on the University of Arkansas campus, and yes, there was only one for all 14,000 students, took up an entire room. Data entry and computer programming was all done using cards that I used to program the computer by using a keypunch machine that punch holes in the card. The computer card reading machine would shine a light on the card in the holes would indicate the letters or numbers that I had typed and had been punched into the card. After typing a program, I would have to wait for five minutes to four hours for the computer programmers to process my job. The internet was in its infancy. Only a few computer geeks had terminals connected to the mainframe computer brain and were able to chat with each other and with other students on campus.

            Even in my class, the language laboratory with optional. We did not have to practice the language by listening to audio tapes, but they were available. If I had been smart, and I wasn't, I would have spent 4 to 5 hours each week practicing German outside of class. The results of my poor efforts are reflected in my grades. I did manage to get a C, and average grade, in my first semester German, but I dropped out of the second semester when I discovered I was failing. That adventure, involving a graduate student instructor who brought puppies to our class but failed to grade our test is another story that you can read in "Windsong," my autobiography. The semester started in early January, but she failed to return our test until late April, a few weeks before the semester ended in early May. Until late April, I had no idea that I had three F's and a D- on the four major tests. I have to talk to the Dean of the College to be awarded a grade of withdrawal passing two weeks after the final drop date. The drop date was the last day that a student was allowed to drop a class without being awarded an F. I was awarded the grade of "withdrawal-passing" meaning that the grade did not show up on my transcript and did not affect my grade point average.

            But, let's get back to your main point. How should a student study a foreign language? First, don't do what I did. Study outside of class. Study during class. Use every spare moment possible to study the foreign language. If you have to walk across campus look around you and think in German, English, Chinese, or whatever language you are learning. Think about how you would greet someone. Think about what the weather is like. Think about the colors, the numbers, shapes, and the positions of the things that you see. But think in the new language.

            One way to tell you are making progress in any language is when you start thinking or dreaming in that language. This will not happen from sitting in class. As I discovered in my fourth semester of college, I had to spend time outside of class studying. Many students fail to keep track of the time they spend studying. But I forced myself to track the time I spent on any class studying for that class in 15 minute increments. I quickly discovered I was spending 3 to 5 hours a week studying outside of class. Many people have told me a student should spend two hours studying for every hour in class. During that critical fourth semester I increased my study time to 15 to 20 hours a week and even that is minimal.

            Remember, I spent an average of 31 hours a week in class, 15 hours a week at work, and 15 to 20 hours studying. That is, I spent 65 to 70 hours a week working hard on being a student after that fourth semester. My grades improved markedly. But my two years of finishing a year's worth of studying German was over. If I had it to do over again, I would have spent three hours a week studying German for each of the four hours I spent in class. That is, to make a good grade in German I would have spent 12 hours we studying only German. How you study is up to you. You can read. You can watch movies or television in the foreign language. You can memorize words. You can study grammar. What is more important than how you study is how much time you study.

            If you are trying to learn English without practicing English the process will be very slow. As one friend told me, a man and his wife spent two years overseas. One wanted to speak perfect Spanish and would not speak Spanish and unless it was perfect Spanish. The other ignored grammar completely, made many mistakes, and spoke terrible Spanish. After two years, one spoke perfect Spanish and the other could not speak any Spanish at all. Can you guess which one learn the language? It was the one who practiced. So don't be afraid to speak. Practice. It takes 10,000 hours to learn any skill well so don't expect to speak fluently in the new language unless you have put in your 10,000 hours. Even if you spend four hours a week in class and 12 hours week outside of class, in a 14 week semester you're only going to have studied for a mere 700 hours.

            For most people, mastering the language is impossible in 700 hours. That is why the student who is learning German will take German I in German II during his or her worst year of college. I'm using voice recognition software to write this blog and it replaced the word "first" with "worst." But since the worst year is usually the first year, I decided to leave that error in place. A serious foreign language student will study the language for 2 to 3 years aside from studying culture and other classes. So don't expect miracles but do work on that 10,000 hours.

            One Chinese high school student managed to study for 10,000 hours in a period of 18 months. He was rewarded with the position as one of 30 students that year to study English in the University at Beijing. While he was a poor student from Fujian Province he went to school with students who were children of ambassadors and had experience learning English overseas while they were in high school. How could he possibly study for 10,000 hours in only 18 months? That is approximately 500 hours a month or 125 hours a week. If you're a college student with only a total of 176 hours in your week you can study English or any language for 125 hours, but you can study for 12. I'm taking a different approach. I plan to get in my 10,000 hours over a 20 year period. In that way, I only need to study 1 to 2 hours a day. But I do expect the same results.