I would like to preface by saying that my personality is that of wanting to know the whys of how things work, not necessarily looking for resolve. Meaning, aside from language learning, I enjoy connecting dots from a psych/sociological aspect in understanding why we do what we do. I know that folks online tend to thrive on the ignorant in that we tend to want to answer questions, rather than flesh out ideas from original posters. Also, I know that I came off pretty passionate in my previous post, so this time it's less about me, and more about the culture of language learning itself. The reason that prompted me to write this post is due to my wild experience this weekend visiting Mersin, Turkey, after having traveled from Istanbul.
As I said, I love to connect dots and understand the deeper meanings of social dynamics. As such, I'm heavily in tune with various subcultures such as fitness, nutrition, music, politics, cars, astrology, personality traits, current events, etc... In that, I have found a striking correlation between many of these groups. What I have noticed is that the deeper you get into a particular area of interests, you pass a certain threshold by where commonality no longer exists between the newbies and veterans of these spaces. With language learning, there seems to be more discussion on fluency, rather than the real world struggles of functional language learners. What's kind of frightening is that you have people imposing their views on others based on "scientific research". To be more specific, I have found similarities between the silent period (language learning) fasting/keto (fitness/nutrition) and NOFAP (period of no masturbating within men's self-help groups). I have literally read tons of posts/responses on delaying speaking, people discussing not breaking their "silent period fast" for over a year, and relishing on several months of no output.
I find this extremely interesting that we have debates on whether to speak or not when it comes to language learning. Perhaps living in America has corrupted my idea of language learning because as so many immigrants arrive, they often must attempt to speak for the most part. This is not coming from a place of judgement, but more so of fascination. It is if we are promoting home schooling for language learning, rather than realizing that some people must travel and attend work or schooling abroad.
This is simply a working theory, but it seems as if the active online community has been overrun by language learners without an explicit need to learn a language. Therefore, their mindset is different to that of those who have to use it as a means to function daily. I have even read others telling folks, who experience passive bilingualism, that the reason why they aren't able to speak is because "they don't have enough input"- despite the person just simply not having practiced output enough. What is even beyond fascinating, but downright insane, was a person telling another poster to not necessarily worry about output for a few years when learning a language. That advice alone can seriously cause someone to question how we even got to this point... However, I do believe that sometimes we need to get out of our own ways and accept that people have experiences vastly different to our own. The concept of "I have never experienced this, therefore it doesn't exist" is highly prevalent amongst the online community.
The question then becomes- who are the points of reference for the common functional language learner just trying to get by in their target country? We give advice on preventing bad habits and fossilization, but who exactly are we targeting? Do we advise those who migrate to Mexico and India to delay their output? If we have all these folks wearing their CEFR patches on their arms, giving advice from the comfort of their native home, it then becomes hard to relate to those struggling while living in their target country. Perhaps, those who are in their target country aren't online, but rather busy immersing their way to output. Not to offend anyone but to me, it almost feels as if we have entered the world of Whole-foods vs your local grocery store when it comes to language learning. It's as if it all stems from the need to be fluent, rather than functional in your use of a language. You have those who can afford the luxury of spending months on input, tutors, and paid online software, whereas others have to rely on broken language just to get by day to day. For those that state that they never learned a language while living in their TL country, only means that the motivation wasn't there. This was my idea behind my previous post, but I admit that I came off a bit gunny with some of my choice of words. Again, this is not a matter of "do what feels right", but more so of this being much of the content that new language learners are presented with.
For me having to move to Germany in a few months, all the research regarding language learning is basically all about Comprehensible Input and less on immersion and output. For example, the same author of short stories that I have been consuming simultaneously has videos on why immersion isn't a great language learning strategy for beginners. I may be projecting here, but perhaps he is catering to a certain demographic of folk who have the above stated time and luxury. So, the question again becomes who are the people that we are using as reference- especially for those who need to use foreign language as a means to function... Seriously, type in silent period and you will find how many people are cozied up with their books and discussing whether to speak now or wait a year or two. So, that right there is extremely fascinating and I wonder what creates that mindset, as well as how much digitization has affected the way language learners socially interact. I can't even count the number of times I have heard or read people say that they "developed a better accent as a result of waiting to speak"... How does one even come to that conclusion? I am telling you that I have come across some interesting points.
To close with my own story from this past weekend, I had the hardest time in Mersin. In Istanbul, one can get by without even having to know Turkish for the most part. I decided that since I will only be here for one year, I wanted to fully engage in French and German via listening/reading. I have made no effort to learn the basic Turkish vocabulary whatsoever. This weekend was surely eye-opening. Shopping at the mall was a struggle, traveling by taxi, and even getting into some of the busier restaurants was challenging. It's not so much the struggle, but more of not knowing even the basic words such as right/left, food items, excuse me, etc... Again, this is not me traveling to my TL country for the experience. I actually live here and have an address; this is my home for 12-15 months or longer, depending on if I want to renew my contract. I simply hate not being able to express myself freely and have dialogue with people. I enjoy asking questions and figuring things out. I remember living in Latvia around 2002 and was able to get around the city with only a few months of learning words/sentences. Had I introduced CI via reading and listening, I probably would have been having conversations after 13 months. What worked was picking up on vocabulary and using them daily. However, since I haven't lived outside the US since 2004, I haven't had to revisit the process of learning a language. To my wife's surprise, I still remember sentences, times, and numbers even after 20 years of leaving that country and never using Latvian. I suppose I have the learning gene as many of the diplomats in my family do.
Nonetheless, there was an incident this weekend in Mersin by where my party was greeted upon entering into a particular establishment, but when it was apparent that we didn't speak Turkish, it suddenly became "reservation only". Throughout the interaction, it was told to us that "when we go to America, we have to speak English. When you are in Turkey, you have to speak Turkish". I am not going to lie to you... That really hit me and I dwelled on that for a moment because for so many years, I have been hearing something similar while living in Miami, Florida towards the Cubans.
I had a conversation with one particular restaurant owner who is originally from Belgium, but of Turkish parents and speaks English, Turkish, Russian, French, Flemish, and German. We discussed how he learned English and my process of learning German. He told me that I have to speak. Yes, reading and listening is good, but I have to make mistakes and speak. He mentioned that during his days as a salesman in Bodrum, he had to learn the profiles of the customers in order to develop rapport for more sales. This was how he learned French, Russian and English as it was a matter of survival and repeating the same sentences over and over. Eventually he was having full conversations by simply listening to native speakers and repeating what they said.
So, this is not a criticism towards those who rather bathe in their silent period. I am not attacking anyone, so please do not take it as though I am trying to undermine anyone and I am not looking for a fight. This is simply a conversation of what I have been observing. I am still trying to find what will work for me, but what I do know is that I must acquire the basic German vocabulary for the next few months. I will then get out there with real people, take a few in-person courses, and interact with real folks when I arrive in Germany in June. As for French, I will continue reading/listening, and begin engaging with more French family members. I will of course use reading and listening to fine tune, but I can't afford the luxury of not "breaking my silent period fast". I have to literally go out and eat 6 meals a day or else I will be left starving when I visit my family in France come July, lol...
Finally, if you have no interest in reading this lengthy post, taking the time to comment that you have no intention on reading this entire post says something about you... Just move on.
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