Thursday, September 2, 2010

L for "Language Learning"

Some people agreed on the idea that language learning needs the ability of accepting ambiguity. From my experience, people who studied English grammar a LOT (and are not used to speaking) tend to obsessed with getting "right" answers. But unfortunately, languages are neither perfect nor permanent. They are changing from time to time. And in many cases, various kinds of exceptions are allowed in communication. (If you want to write a university thesis, that's another story.) Being serious about acquiring a language is great. However, I think it makes things easier if you leave some questions as they are and take it easy.

At kids' school, what we are trying to do is to let children hear, read, and understand English even there are lots of unfamiliar vocabulary. Unlike junior high or high school, we don't encourage them to translate English into Japanese in the process of comprehension. Sadly, only a few kids can manage to keep that ability until they become 4th graders. Due to negative influence from Janglish or lack of practice, many of them loose their comprehension skills and pronunciation as they grow older. When they ask us, "What does this mean in Japanese?", we are horrified.

Language learning is never easy!
(I'll study French harder accepting good amount of ambiguity!)

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