When it comes to learning a language, it is very easy to have the misconception that every day one will perform better, it only gets easier as you go, and that one doesn't get fatigued as he or she acquires a language constantly. During my experience in China, I've been noticing a lot of different factors when it comes to learning language and never really sorted them out and in this blog entry I'm going to see if I can make some sense of these thoughts.
The first thing I very quickly noticed and have experienced throughout my time in China is that progress in language is not a steady progression to the highest level, but rather a very bumpy ride. On the first day that we actually went around and got situated with our classes I ended up speaking a lot of Chinese and got more comfortable with what I was saying. I thought that day was the start of constant progress that would continue consistently. The opposite of what really happened. I noticed that in the next days that passed that sometimes I felt as if all the progress I had made before went away. It sort of felt as if I didn't know anything and that I had frozen. The same scenario has happened over and over again. But what does it mean?
I think when learning a language and especially in direct application like being in the country that a language is spoken, I think that most people with me definitely included can only take in so much information at once. I don't have to be a scientist to say that when one is speaking in another language, they are using his or her brain in a way that he or she is not accustomed. I think this brings about a lot of fatigue. It's only natural to feel this way but it doesn't necessarily explain a lack of performance on a later day. I think I do worse on some days because I am fatigued not in the sense of an short period of time, but rather an overarching long term sense of fatigue that builds up over time. That is to say, language learners feel fatigue in short periods of time like a day and feel it in regards to the accumulation of language acquisition.
I think this fatigue is the same as getting better at anything. I guess what it really comes down to is that no one can ever expect anything to go completely smoothly. There are always going to be bumps in the road and problems ahead. The effort will always pay off though. Even if it's not immediate, it will happen and one's goals will be realized. I always knew that these difficulties existed but it just never directly hit me like it has during this trip. It's ok though. The same thing happened when learning kung-fu. I actually liked the bad days. It made me feel comforted because I knew that a good day was soon to come.
Learning a language is like being a beggar. One must pick up the scraps that everyone leaves behind and savor them. One must let them nourish his or herself and continue looking for more. It is easy to lose hope and feel like the effort it futile. But however, one day the beggar might find a great feast instead of small scraps. At the same time, the beggar might not eat for another four days. What makes it even more difficult is that the beggar has a feast waiting for him or her in the area of which they are comfortable tempting them at all times. Everyone can decide to not learn a language and just be good at their native tongue. Such is the hardships and crests and troughs that are associated with language acquisition. The most important thing is to accept it and know that it is part of the process of language acquisition and to believe that at the end of the day, it really is all worth it.
Explanation of pictures:
In the first picture, there is a women crouching by a curb brushing her teeth. This represented a language up for me, because I was able to say in my head what she was doing.
In the second picture, there are two men playing a game. This represented a language down for me, because when I asked the men if I could take a picture, I used the incorrect word for picture.
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