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An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768 National Gallery, London, Public Domain, |
Gist is especially important with social dance and with picking up languages.
People say, endlessly they can't dance, or they can't "do" languages. No-one considers it is the method. They might say, Oh, I chose the wrong teacher. But they don't step back from that.
We used to pick social dances up. Now the method is commercialised.
Languages we learn in a profoundly unnatural way in school, often with teachers who have an accent that would make Siri malfunction. Language learning in an immersive environment means you learn quickly, but it can be exhausting. It is very different to the over-analytical school method. There you learn all the different elements of a sentence, these elements even get names. Then you try to use them.
- We learned comparators today, in Spanish said my son, yesterday.
- Oh yes?, I replied, waiting for the fog to clear.
- Yeah, "c", he said.
- Sorry?
- Más grande c yo.
- Que!
He adapted.
How could they teach the linguistic element and completely fail on the pronunciation, the key that makes you understood? That, in a nutshell is the problem of priorities in school language departments..
- Las matematicas son mas interesantes que la química .
- If you say so!
- Que!
He adapted.
How could they teach the linguistic element and completely fail on the pronunciation, the key that makes you understood? That, in a nutshell is the problem of priorities in school language departments..
- Las matematicas son mas interesantes que la química .
- If you say so!
El lunes es más aburrido que el miércoles. That one he understood.
El perrito es más cariñoso que el gato. He needed help with cariñoso, but you can demonstrate so that's easy enough.
El helado es más rico que el arroz, I said, choosing an easy target. He didn't understand every word, but he got the gist.
I don't know why kids have to learn about comparators. Linguistic elements tell, but the examples show, they are the Bergsonsian intuition - you grasp, at some level that may not be conscious, what que is and what it does it all through the example. You can reuse it without even really thinking about it. The realisation that que means than might come later. That is effective language learning - you bypass translation.
I don't know why kids have to learn about comparators. Linguistic elements tell, but the examples show, they are the Bergsonsian intuition - you grasp, at some level that may not be conscious, what que is and what it does it all through the example. You can reuse it without even really thinking about it. The realisation that que means than might come later. That is effective language learning - you bypass translation.
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