Great Language Test

One of the best ways to gauge how far you've gotten along in language studies is to speak with someone that either doesn't speak your native tongue, or speaks so very little of it, they really can't help you very much.

I just finished a conversation with my very first language partner, a Colombian man I credit with giving me a solid start in Spanish. We'd get on MSN messenger or the phone and I would listen to him talk about politics or science or food or whatever. I understood precious little of what he was saying, but the listening was great ear training. All he asked in return was that I teach someone else English. Fast forward five years, and he's gone on to study Russian and Italian while I've been focusing on Chinese. Still, Spanish is the only language we share, so we conversed entirely en Español.

Any speaker of any language will tell you that if they don't practice, they lose their skills. I have a friend, native-born in the Republic of Georgia who, after living for well over a decade in the US and spending time with Russians, says that his English and Russian are now better than his Georgian. Also, a few weeks ago, I  interviewed the first full-blooded Chinese player in the NFL, Ed Wang. He was born in the US but raised in a Chinese speaking home. I asked about his fluency in Chinese and he said that after leaving his parents' home, it fell off some, but that it returns after spending some time around them.

This conversation that I just had a few minutes ago...it made me realize that I'm frequently too hard on myself on the gains I've made in any language. I haven't studied Spanish actively for a while, but I can't discount the fact that I can have a 30 min conversation with a non-English speaker with no aids whatsoever.

What HAS suffered though, is my vowel pronunciation. Since speaking more Mandarin, they've become entirely too throaty for the relatively shallow Spanish pronunciation, which definitely slows me down some.

It also made me realize that my retention rate may be higher than I know.A year off Spanish and my conjugation is a bit slow, but I still flow decently.

People have accents. Get over it.

The subject of accents came up in a discussion I had with my mother today.

She teaches English and literature at a career college. Their student demographic has shifted greatly lately, and the majority of the students are Latin or Haitian with a few Asians and Americans sprinkled in. She has one coworker that's complained about the "behavior" of his students before, and this time, was complaining that students had accents so thick he couldn't understand them. Kind of ironic since he's not American himself and I'm sure has had exposure to heavily accented English.

This is a complaint I have precious little sympathy for. Why? I'm American born with parents that speak standard American English. Sure, there was a relative here and there with a thick Southern drawl or Bahamian lilt, but nothing that would classify as "thick" or exceptionally foreign.

I think back to my high school trigonometry class. Our teacher was Ms. Vadakara. She taught quickly and with a heavy Indian accent. When I first started, I was scared that I'd never pass because I couldn't understand her...but guess what...after about two weeks, her words sounded less and less strange. I began to understand her with no effort. I sat through those two weeks because I had to to learn. I cared about getting through that class. 

And that's the key. You have to actually care about what someone is trying to communicate with you to take the time to sit down, focus, and listen through an accent. Even now, I work with a lot of developers from India, partner with a lot of Chinese speakers and go to a gym with a lot of native Spanish speakers. (I've been called in at work to conference calls to "translate" through an accent multiple times.) I listen because I care what they have to say.

What does this have to do with self and alternative education? One of the biggest changes going on in the environment of education right now is a rapidly...I mean it...RAPIDLY shrinking globe. Anyone who does not have the patience to take a little time to not even learn a foreign language, but simply get used to hearing their native tongue spoken with a new accent will undoubtedly miss out on a world of opportunities. 

中文 setbacks

I made some changes to my Chinese learning in 2010...all in all I can say they weren't very productive. I've gotten more involved in Chinese culture-related activities, but that's chipped away a bit (just a tad) at my study time. On a positive, it's helped me connect with other people that have learned the language successfully.

Surprisingly, the weekly discussion group I've been heading up has, overall, not contributed much to my learning. I've helped other people learn, but (as was an issue in learning Spanish), the more time I spend around people at lower skill levels, the more I have to fight "against my environment" to improve. So, sure, I'm studying grammar more and am glad to help other people get over that painful initial hurdle of Mandarin, but I'm also spending much more time listening to incorrect tones, initials and finals. Fighting to keep that out isn't easy.

I've continued listening to Chinese radio at work, which is a GREAT way to cement what you know and already recognize. For words and phrases I picked up in say, the first year or two of my study, they register on my brain as clearly as Spanish does with no need for translation.

Going into 2011, I'm going to go back to more private study and work with native speakers. If I do teach, it will be in a more formal environment, where there is less "feedback" that won't help me grow. 

Data Mining

So my job is changing once again...my industry is pretty loose (health care) on the non-clinical side, so when problems crop up, there's a lot of creativity involved. I'm starting to inch more into the world of data mining and am thinking about picking up a course/book to get me better at what I do. I found a pretty good list of books at Thearling where I think I'll start my search.

I also found a course at MITs Open CourseWare offerings.

Big Questions

I did half my MBA online and half in person. Both methods of learning had their pros and cons of course, but telling people that fact, I got a good earful of the cons people perceive in online learning...most of them being centered around the "solitary" nature of learning online.

• "It's not a real education." Basically, you can't learn as much in an online environment as you can in person. My guess is that this is true mostly for those that are not self directed learners. Also, both online and in person programs come in the "fluff" variety.
• "If I took a class like that, I wouldn't do my work." I think...no...I KNOW I did more work in my online classes. Part of this was because there was simply more work to do, butt mostly, this was because there were fewer boundaries on "in class" work, so I pushed more.
• "No class? That must be nice." A good clue into what they saw as the primary benefit of online learning. I classify that as a con.

There's a lot of insight into the attitudes of those who aren't naturally self directed learners. Most seem to have the view that learning under one's own supervision is either less effective, or simply easier. These are the people I wonder about. I wonder if they are, or ever could be candidates for self directed learning. Can they be taught to teach themselves or does that have to be developed at a very young age? How much motivation can be "grown" and how much is innate? Can courses be modified to accommodated these learners?

Self Directed Learning Evaluation

I just found a great resource for evaluating your personal status as a self directed learner.

http://www.guglielmino734.com/

Stay tuned for feedback.