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You Are a Baby!

Believe it or not, you are a baby. Normally, it is not good policy to insult readers, but I have a duty to be honest with you. You are a mixed up, confused, stumbling over your every single word baby, or at least a toddler, because you are learning a new language and have given birth to a new you.

Think about it. Here you are trying to learn this language that a native 4-year-old begins speaking with ease. Yes, the content is not always the most intelligent, but the native speaking tot can get his ideas across to whoever will listen. How in the world does he speak with his parents and with others in this confusing, ridiculous sounding language (one that frustrates you so often) without stumbling as much on his words as you do?

The answer is that to the native child, the target language is not “ridiculous sounding.” It makes all the sense in the world. The funny sounds with the accent mark are normal and that is exactly how you are supposed to say those particular words - with those “not so funny to him, but funny to you” sounds.

You may be thinking, “but that’s totally unfair. I was not born speaking this frustrating language, but now I want to (or have to) learn it and some kid gets way more advantages by learning it early.”

While it is true that you did not come out of the womb saying, “las manajas rojas,” “mir ist kalt,” or “Ninhongo ga hanashimas,” the hope for your success lies in the one fact that you and native speakers have in common; neither did they.

Like the baby version of the native speaker was, the baby in you has to be developed, trained, and nurtured. The truth is that if you are learning Spanish, for example, then you have two sides of your brain to think about, two entities inside of you, an English you, and a Spanish you. The native speaker in you is the person you have come to know as yourself. He or she is the person you identify with when someone says, “you.” The Spanish you is a baby. He or she is an unknown entity with an unknown personality. I find that when I am speaking German, I will even make some decisions differently than I would have had I only been speaking English the entire time.

Get in Touch With Your Second Self

I have an Italian me who is turning six years old, an English me who is an adult in his mid to late forties, a Spanish me who is in his preteens, a German me who is turning eighteen, and of course, a Japanese toddler.

They are all different people and I am becoming a little schizophrenic.

As crazy as it may sound, this is the way that you need to approach your language learning. Speaking of which, let’s get back to our example, that beautiful little Spanish baby, which is also you.

The baby Spanish speaker has to learn a few things. When he is around grown up Spanish speaking people, he looks around in a daze, trying to make heads or tails out of what anybody says. You do that too? Excellent. If not, I suggest you start. Just listen to “older” Spanish speaking people talk.

Here is where the biggest difference between you and those who have not yet read this book will become evident, so remember this well:

The native speaking baby repeats sounds and words that he hears, a lot; often not even knowing what he is talking about.

He makes the, “rrrrr” sound while shamelessly trying to roll his tongue. He does not make such statements as, “this is boring,” “this is stupid,” or “I just can’t do this.” Never will the Spanish-speaking baby declare, “I’m not saying that, because that’s silly!”

The Spanish baby is in touch with himself and deep down says, I want to communicate with these people so I am going to have to control the way that I speak. Then these people can understand me, feed me when I am hungry, wipe the crap off of me, and put me to sleep when I want to rest.

If you have children of your own, remember how they were in their baby-to-toddler years as the gift of speech was bestowed upon them. Their first words might have been mama, papa, ball, poop, baba, or whatever word they heard you, as their parent, say the most.

Even when they are watching television with you, they are picking up on language, their “normality.” (So parents should pay special attention to what their kids watch on television.)

The first three to seven years of a child’s life is really the programming time frame.

Now that we have mentioned television, have you ever observed a child when they are watching their favorite cartoon or television series? When small aged kids watch cartoons, they try and repeat the theme songs. They force themselves to learn the sayings that their favorite character often says.

They are inadvertently, and sometimes purposely, learning. You should also be racking up the television time in your target language, and only sparingly in your native tongue.

If you do not have any children, think about how you learned to talk. Really, stop and take a few seconds to think about it. You picked up a language that, somewhere else in the world, someone will dump a ton of money and loads of their precious time and brain space into to learn. How exactly did you do it? Could you do it again? You should already know the answer to that.

You have to be the same way as that native baby. You have to repeat words, learn phonetics (the way words sound based on their spelling) by imitation and ignore the fact that you have heard them before, or that you can already say certain things to some degree. Repeat, repeat, repeat, until it is engraved in your memory. You have to do what the Spanish baby did in the beginning of his life because this is the beginning of your Spanish you’s life; repeat, repeat, repeat. Watch your favorite shows and say what your favorite characters say. Repeat the lines and learn the theme song, sing the song. Then, sing it again…

It is as easy as that; repeat, repeat, repeat.

I was once teaching a student of mine English, privately, and he got so frustrated because he could not remember the vocabulary enough to spit the words out when I quizzed him. I then asked him to take a break. I knew that he loved the Harry Potter series, so instead of drilling him on English vocabulary, I asked him different questions, such as:

“What’s the name of that mean teacher in the movie? The one who gives Harry trouble?”

He spit the answer out like he had written the books himself.

“What’s the name of that girl who is always with the main character?”

Again, he said the correct answer without hesitation.

I then decided to ask him how he knew the names to all of these characters? Without even noticing the trap I set for him he proudly stated,

“Because I’ve seen every Harry Potter movie thousands of times and I’ve read all of the books hundreds of...oh.”

Oh, indeed.

It seems as if I am not off with this repetition business.

If you are unsure of yourself, start off repeating sounds, with the goal of being as accurate as you can. (We will discuss language goals later.) Every time you hear a new word or phrase in your target language you have to repeat it, like the baby you are – but not just two or three times. That’s not repetition. Become extreme and repeat it thousands of times! (I hope that by now you understand where I am going with this baby theory…)

Repeat the sounds, repeat the syllables, and then repeat the words.

Repeating words in language study are like doing push ups. Who would quit after five pushups and say, “Good. I did five. I can do them now, I don’t have to practice them anymore.”

Nobody can get stronger like that. You have to be able to do at least thirty, and do some in diamond form, and also do them with one hand, incline, decline, etc. If you do not find yourself repeating words until you are blue in the face, how is your target language’s brain going to get stronger? How is the baby going to grow mentally?

As a baby you must also learn the culture first hand. No man is an island, and although you do not have a mother and father who can give you the proper lessons in culture that most natives receive, you can find other ways to receive a proper equivalent.

Ask someone who is from your target language’s culture about their specific beliefs, quirks, and all around way of life. Ask if you could eat a typical dish from their homeland. (Be sure that they cook well first. Nothing tastes worst than a foreign dish prepared by someone who cannot cook.) There are tons of ways to experience the culture without even leaving your city.

If you have a language teacher who is a native of the target language’s land, ask him or her, after class, about some aspect of his or her culture.

Another option is taking courses that focus not only on language, but also on the culture in the lands of the language itself. You can also find yourself a significant other, a date, a girlfriend, someone frivolous or more serious, who gladly speaks your target language – though, that may prove difficult for some, it is worth the extra effort.

You can also travel to the country where the target language is spoken and learn the hard way. (More on immersion in Chapter 10)

The precious time that you spend on learning your target language should be taken with the expectation that you will help your other self grow to the place where communication becomes effective.

Eventually, you want to get your other self to the point where you will literally be a language superhero, with two identities, mild mannered native speaker and super foreign language speaker. Exactly which superhero you get to be is your decision.

Celebrate Your Achievements

As children, our birthdays are very special times for us and for our families. You should also get into the habit of celebrating your second birthday as well. Throw a little celebration after you reach a certain point in your studies. It does not have to be an extravaganza, although if you want to have a large birthday party on the beach with all you can drink catering, then more power to you — and be sure to invite me.

When you get to the point where it is clear that you can understand your target language a little more, or that you can communicate in a new way that you could not when you started, you should celebrate the accomplishment. Give yourself a treat. Make it worth your while for making it to a new level of maturity in your target language. Rewarding yourself will also help you get through the tough times in language learning. Most likely, there will always be at least one hang up, hiccup, or section where you feel pressured to quit. This is where the reward, and the knowledge that you (or someone else) will reward you thoroughly, can push you towards accomplishing your goal.

Key Success Factors Review

Have confidence that your language reality will change.

Repeat like a baby and celebrate your birthdays.