Real Language Learning Advice
My First Calligraphy Attempts, Kyoto, May 2015.
This morning, I saw on Google’s suggested articles for me the title “Drinking alcohol can help you learn a foreign language.” Instantly, I felt annoyed. A lot of things don’t bother me that much, but this one stood out. I had been told in the past a couple times by people that if I drank alcohol with Japanese people, I could pick up on Japanese even better. It annoyed me at those times, too.
Fact one: I don’t drink alcohol.
Fact two: I’ve generally been able to pick up on Japanese pretty quickly, and I was consistently near or at the top of all my Japanese classes at my university for all four years.
Fact three: I do go drinking with Japanese people. I go to lots of work parties with my schools and the board of education. I’m just drinking soda or tea, and so are some of them. It is fun to talk with both the sober and not so sober people.
When I actually read the article as it showed up again later today, I discovered it was very short and didn’t actually have any research backing the main statement besides a German study of students doing better on a Dutch speaking evaluation when they drank a certain amount because it calmed nerves and loosened their tongues. The article’s conclusion was that too much alcohol, of course, impairs good speech. So rather than being annoyed after reading the article, it got me thinking about language learning.
In spite of the article’s title, the study cited did not have anything to do with learning a foreign language. It only showed that alcohol can help with performance of the language, which is not the same thing. It is similar to a lot of tests in school. They don’t often show you have learned the material well, but that you can perform it well. Then you forget the facts. Real learning is a continual process of incorporating what you learn to improve your life and mind. We learn, we forget, we redo, we improve, we change. Then we forget again. The most satisfying thing is when we learn something challenging and we finally understand it. Of course, then we forget the details once again, but the learning becomes a part of how we view the world and stays with us as we continue to learn more. My education experience at my university was the best thing ever for me. My learning new skills in Japan is now the best thing ever. That is because there are challenging things to learn and improve on all the time for me. If drinking a bit of alcohol makes it easy for you to speak, you are not being challenged, so you are not learning, but only performing. That is an important skill, but don’t confuse the two.
So why not take on a bit of a challenge and start putting in the effort to learn a language the real way? If you truly want to perform better anytime and anywhere, with or without the alcohol, preparation is the best confidence booster. Working hard towards learning and your own education increases confidence in what you know and can do, and, in turn, your confidence helps to continue to improve and take on new challenges. Take that spiraling up learning pattern into your life if you want to actually learn a language.
Need some more motivation to study a foreign language? Check out my language learning resources and tips for how I use them effectively. Also, send more ideas about education my way, and open up the conversation for how we can learn better and communicate together.
Check out this link for my tips and resources that you can apply to learning any language: Language Learning Resources