Language Journal: May 8th 2019 - The slow trek to fluency
I'm not a student. I'm a father of a kindergarten aged child, and husband and an employee. I enjoy the fact that I'm able to sit, unproductive for a few hours before bed time.
In short, I'm not in school for Japanese, or pushing out multi-hour days of practice or study. In fact, most days it would be considered lucky if I even hit whole single digits hours.
Needless to say, my journey through language learning is fraught with seeking efficiencies and/or acceptance. Without making sacrifices I don't want or plan to make I'm never going to be a poster child for attaining fluency "in 6 months" or whatever ridiculous benchmark people are screaming about these days.
Right now, I consider myself to be at a fairly high level for someone who would still be classified as a learner of the language. In fact, I'm not sure that there is much in the way of levels above my current level which technically fall into learning categories. My vocabulary is quite high. My understanding of grammar is more than adequate. I do kind of suck at composition of sentences though.
And that leads me to tonight's topic; what I'd call the casual learners final steps to something akin to fluency.
Granted. I'm not fluent yet. So, I may be wrong. But, then, when you hear what I'm about to say, I think you'll understand where I'm going with this.
My theory is that, as someone with no real immersion in a language reaches a higher level, there are some steps which can be taken to attain (or can be used as benchmarks to measure) those last steps before being able to dive into conversation. Reading, translating and translating.
No, that wasn't a mistake. Those last two appear the same and even seem the same as the first. But, let me explain...
Reading is not the same as translating. It is closer to the same in the early stages of language acquisition to be sure. But, one thing I've noticed is that some words, concepts and phrases are evolving in my head in the same way as English words. Which is to say, I know what they "mean", but not what they "mean".
In English, there are a great many words that I "understand" and can use in the language appropriately, but which I likely couldn't give a sufficient dictionary definition to save my life. In fact, MOST English words are like that for me. I didn't learn them by means of learning their definition, or by learning them anchored to a meaning in another language. I learned them by experiencing them and knowing how and when they are appropriate to use.
Likewise, with Japanese, there are words where I might able to sloppily translate them into something passable in English. But, I don't really know the dictionary definition and my understanding of the word is deeper than that English anchor word.
In short, while I still can't read well enough to say I've attained native level reading skills of any remarkable level, the truth is that I can read more than I can accurately convey back into my native tongue.
Attaining that level of fluency seems like a reasonable first step for a learner of an additional language; the ability to read native language without necessarily knowing the exact representation in another language.
Translating in the next step. This may be controversial. I know a lot of people would like to ignore their native language when learning a new one. But, it is an invaluable comprehension tool. And, as a person who knows 0 Japanese native speakers in real life, is busy, and pretty laid back in studies, I don't have they best means of using those more ideal approaches.
Translating in this sense is also not a literal translation. And this is what separates it from the loathed form. You can pass something through Google translate or via a dictionary word by word, but in many cases, such a translation won't deliver the same sense of the situation. No. Real translations are when you can take a phrase in one language and turn it in the real, nearest approximate translation in another language. Take this for example:
雨が降った地固める
This is an idiom which literally translates to something like
"Rain falls, the ground hardens."
But, a more ideal English translation would be "Pain makes us stronger" or "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger".
Note, none of the words in either of the better English translations show up in literal translation. This runs deeper than "wrote" translation. To get to such a level you need to know the social impact or meaning of a statement and how to say it in both languages.
This, however, won't make you fluent. In fact, won't even guarantee the ability to be conversational. This skill is very one directional. And, it is the heart of the reason why I'm not really out of that learners stage yet. I'm actually decent at reading, and even OK at translating most of the time. That is where the next part comes in.
Translating. But, this time from your native language to the target language. And again, more than just literal translations. Natural language translations. I say native language specifically, because that is where you'll notice most easily the areas you're lacking.
And this is sequential, though multiple steps can take part to some degree at the same time. Reading will teach you the vocab and grammar and natural language usage. Translating from the target language will force you to more concretely reinforce that learning and reinforce your understanding of the natural way of speaking in the target language. And lastly, being able to translate into your target language will practice spontaneous reproduction of those learned elements.
And now for the past few days worth of failures:
火曜日の間違い言葉：
Done.
In short, I'm not in school for Japanese, or pushing out multi-hour days of practice or study. In fact, most days it would be considered lucky if I even hit whole single digits hours.
Needless to say, my journey through language learning is fraught with seeking efficiencies and/or acceptance. Without making sacrifices I don't want or plan to make I'm never going to be a poster child for attaining fluency "in 6 months" or whatever ridiculous benchmark people are screaming about these days.
Right now, I consider myself to be at a fairly high level for someone who would still be classified as a learner of the language. In fact, I'm not sure that there is much in the way of levels above my current level which technically fall into learning categories. My vocabulary is quite high. My understanding of grammar is more than adequate. I do kind of suck at composition of sentences though.
And that leads me to tonight's topic; what I'd call the casual learners final steps to something akin to fluency.
Granted. I'm not fluent yet. So, I may be wrong. But, then, when you hear what I'm about to say, I think you'll understand where I'm going with this.
My theory is that, as someone with no real immersion in a language reaches a higher level, there are some steps which can be taken to attain (or can be used as benchmarks to measure) those last steps before being able to dive into conversation. Reading, translating and translating.
No, that wasn't a mistake. Those last two appear the same and even seem the same as the first. But, let me explain...
Reading is not the same as translating. It is closer to the same in the early stages of language acquisition to be sure. But, one thing I've noticed is that some words, concepts and phrases are evolving in my head in the same way as English words. Which is to say, I know what they "mean", but not what they "mean".
In English, there are a great many words that I "understand" and can use in the language appropriately, but which I likely couldn't give a sufficient dictionary definition to save my life. In fact, MOST English words are like that for me. I didn't learn them by means of learning their definition, or by learning them anchored to a meaning in another language. I learned them by experiencing them and knowing how and when they are appropriate to use.
Likewise, with Japanese, there are words where I might able to sloppily translate them into something passable in English. But, I don't really know the dictionary definition and my understanding of the word is deeper than that English anchor word.
In short, while I still can't read well enough to say I've attained native level reading skills of any remarkable level, the truth is that I can read more than I can accurately convey back into my native tongue.
Attaining that level of fluency seems like a reasonable first step for a learner of an additional language; the ability to read native language without necessarily knowing the exact representation in another language.
Translating in the next step. This may be controversial. I know a lot of people would like to ignore their native language when learning a new one. But, it is an invaluable comprehension tool. And, as a person who knows 0 Japanese native speakers in real life, is busy, and pretty laid back in studies, I don't have they best means of using those more ideal approaches.
Translating in this sense is also not a literal translation. And this is what separates it from the loathed form. You can pass something through Google translate or via a dictionary word by word, but in many cases, such a translation won't deliver the same sense of the situation. No. Real translations are when you can take a phrase in one language and turn it in the real, nearest approximate translation in another language. Take this for example:
雨が降った地固める
This is an idiom which literally translates to something like
"Rain falls, the ground hardens."
But, a more ideal English translation would be "Pain makes us stronger" or "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger".
Note, none of the words in either of the better English translations show up in literal translation. This runs deeper than "wrote" translation. To get to such a level you need to know the social impact or meaning of a statement and how to say it in both languages.
This, however, won't make you fluent. In fact, won't even guarantee the ability to be conversational. This skill is very one directional. And, it is the heart of the reason why I'm not really out of that learners stage yet. I'm actually decent at reading, and even OK at translating most of the time. That is where the next part comes in.
Translating. But, this time from your native language to the target language. And again, more than just literal translations. Natural language translations. I say native language specifically, because that is where you'll notice most easily the areas you're lacking.
And this is sequential, though multiple steps can take part to some degree at the same time. Reading will teach you the vocab and grammar and natural language usage. Translating from the target language will force you to more concretely reinforce that learning and reinforce your understanding of the natural way of speaking in the target language. And lastly, being able to translate into your target language will practice spontaneous reproduction of those learned elements.
And now for the past few days worth of failures:
火曜日の間違い言葉：
- 恐れる
- A common problem, but I commonly mispronounce this one as okoreru (怒れる) instead of osoreru . Though, I get the meaning right because of the context. I think you can see why they might be easy to mistake. They both have 3 distinct components with 心 on the bottom, and two on top. Similar strokes, similar "balance". And they have similar meanings (both, typically negative emotions [anger and fear]) and both are even pronounced similarly.
- 剃る
- Same as above. I mistake this one with 刺す. Again, we have similarly shaped Kanji, with a component in common on the right and similar shaped components on the left. The kanji in the target word is SO, whereas it is SA in the other. And one means to shave, and the other to stab or prick. So, again, similar concepts to a degree. Though, again, I rarely screw up the meaning. SASU is frequently used to describe things like a bug bite, so you're not going to confuse the meaning with shave, like shaving a beard when a mosquito is involved.
- 喉
- NODO. I just don't see this one enough. It means throat. Was in the same sentence as the next one. And, it is the kind of context where, if I got one, I would get both. But, if you draw a blank on both as I did yesterday, you're out of luck.
- 渇く
- KAWAKU. To be dry or parched. Another one I guess I just don't see enough.
- 演奏
- ENSOU. A performance.
- 欠く
- KAKU. To lack.
- 行為
- KOUI. Action, conduct.
- 金融
- KINYUU. Finance. There is another KIN word I mistake this one with. It isn't coming to me at the moment.
- 行動
- KOUDOU. Action, conduct. Yeah, screwed up synonyms in consecutive days despite common Kanji and this one being a really common word. Just hasty.
- 額
- GAKU. Picture frame/forehead. Even more embarrassing. Just did this one recently and screwed it up again. Mistook it for 頭. As with many of my mistakes, I can at least, again blame it on similar looking Kanji :)
- 反映
- HANEI. Reflection. Mistook this one with 範囲. They don't look at all alike, but that latter one is HANI. So, they are actually pronounced similar. And I learned them initially around the same time.
Done.
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