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此篇文章是取材自BBC - future 的報導文章，主要內容是談論語言學習的技巧和概念!
原文連結在此 http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150528-how-to-le...
個人隨興小語.......
一開始只是好奇文章的標題! 心想，怎麼可能!!!!
仔細耐心地爬完內文，雖然是確有其事。但標題還是下得太誇大其實了....
因為那些所謂的多國語言"人士"或"團體成員"，充其量就是幾種語言...
三十種的確是太誇大了!! 何況當中有很多外在生活環境或工作旅行因素促成的學習利基....
與大多數人的現實生活經驗時在相去甚遠! 但值得確信和肯定的是....
這些多國語言學習者的確是對語言學習有超級強大的興趣和熱忱!!!
在性格特徵上也是屬於積極樂觀者，同時又非常享受和沉浸"學習"這件事本身!!
況且，在下認為...在不是從事語言學專職學術研究等相關工作以外的那些專家...
要做到這種地步幾乎就等同於要把工作和日常瑣事以外的個人時間，
全部投注在語言學習這件事情上面! 這除了要有極大的熱誠和興趣做支撐，
還要有很大的意志力、專注力、頑固般的堅持。
絕大多數的正常人，在現實生活中是不太可能會想做到這樣的.....
又不是吃飽撐著沒事幹，生活中總是有一大堆社會責任、家庭責任、人際應酬要面對!
雖然總括來說，這篇報導有這些盲點和不甚合理誇大的部分。 但我還是極盡推崇...
畢竟這些"狂熱者"的語言學習成效和學習觀點的確是相當卓越和可取的!
撇開那些過於誇大的部分，當中點出的幾個觀點....
確實是學習多國語言該有的心態和竅門! 也點破了一些普遍大眾的盲點!
也激勵在下加強那些觀念和態度，並漸漸培養成實際行動和習慣!
但我並不貪心，只盼求三、四種語言就夠了! 畢竟時間還是珍貴有限。
英文、日文、法文、越南或菲律賓語...這幾個選項是目前想到有興趣的!!
Xavier我還把整篇文章內容整理出重點架構，這些架構並不是全然的照字翻譯，
而是以自己的口吻來整理描述，當中夾雜了一些自己的心得和觀念加強凸顯。
相信對日後一定很有幫助! 文章大概架構如下:
※人物介紹、組織介紹和採訪
※大腦記憶系統、至少延遲五年以上癡呆風險
※年紀大的時候，學習新語言其實遠比我們想像中的容易許多。傳統觀念是錯誤的!
※具有多種語言能力者，很多的確是居住或生活在多種語言和文化刺激的環境之中
※文化變色龍!!! 不須理會智能才華的限制，
而是在於你是否願意給自己設定新的自我意識和自我定位!
以及你自己本身想要什麼樣子的新定位和自我認識!
只要給自己做好認知設定，就能大大幫助學習和使用這個語言的速度
※我們口中所說的字彙和語言，會和我們對自己的認識和定位糾結纏繞在一起!
形成一種不自主的行為和認知反射!! 直接影響到你的神情、行為舉止、心境
例如: 法文會讓你的行為、斯文和氣質變浪漫；義大利文會增進你的熱情態度；
日文會讓你產生內斂細膩的氣質……..
※不同的語言會喚醒你不同的生活經驗和記憶! 甚至導致同樣的畫面和事情、場景，
因為語言運用和思考的不同而使你產生截然不同的解讀、評價、結論、感受
※語言學習的關鍵重點不在於你花了多麼龐大的時間去學習和使用這個語言!!!
當你在學習這個語言時的自我認知設定與某個特定人物是產生連結時，
學習時你就自然而然的會去模仿這個人物的一切!
這會大大增進學習這個語言時的成效!
當你在學習這個語言時藉由所採用的自我身分認知，
以及藉由這個身分認知所連結的記憶，可以協助你防止自己因為先天母語的影響，
所產生的混淆感給抽離出來而讓學習語言不受到不必要的妨礙!
也就是藉由新的自我認知和新的自我身分的設定，再加上與特定人物做模仿連結，
就能夠在你腦中和心中產生因為語言的不同而有所區隔的神經屏障，
這能夠大大加速和增進你的語言學習效果!
藉由不同語言而產生不同的身分認知的設定，讓你能夠在同一時間駕馭使用好幾種語言!
※多種語言使用者在接觸文化和不同的語言都會有較強、較積極的主動性和企圖心!!
讓自己去習慣披上不同國家的文化外衣並沉浸其中!
讓自己的思維、動作、語氣等等各層面都表現得是這個語言和國家文化的一份子。
※當你學習新的語言時，要把自己從”外國”的概念釋放解脫出來，
心境和思維上去把這一切是做我自己的歸屬、自己的部分，
而不是把他是做”國外”的人事物! 同是要去克服”害羞彆扭”的問題，
自然而然放開心地去模仿覆誦所聽到的聲音語言，
就算你不知道覆誦模仿的話和聲音的含意也依樣去跟著揣摩和朗誦!
同時!!! 不要去想字要怎麼去拼出來或怎麼把它寫出來，
聽和覆誦才是最根本的語言學習!! 要有自信地去”說”出這一切!!
就如同你現在是個專業舞台演員!
你的”自信”言行展現才能真正地去睡覆和吸引在場的觀眾和聽眾。
你所說出和聽到的東西是你的!! 不是國外的!!!
※有一個重要因素會大大阻礙你學習多種語言的成效，
那就是”你覺得自己必須說得很道地”! 這是幾乎不可能達成的情況!!!
你完全不需要去考慮到這個!!! 我們只要能夠適當的方式去表達出自己的話就足夠了!!!
※在日常生活中可以先從輕鬆無負擔的東西來去切入新的語言!
例如: 音樂、廣告、歌曲、戲劇、動畫、短片、簡短會話….
每天一些些花個短短幾分鐘都能夠產生累積性、鋪成性的幫助和進步!
同時，去主動抓住生活中可以與這個語言產生的”任何”可能連結!
任何的人、事、物的直接或間接關聯。
甚至還能因此牽引出你意想不到的驚喜和友誼，
甚至還能意外跨越了地區、政治、文化、宗教等等各種困難的隔閡障礙!
※另外一種新語言的學習，的確是真正能夠幫助你，
實質開啟一個全然不同的新世界!!!
為了避免內文有移除的疑慮，特別把原文內容給附上.....
• By David Robson
29 May 2015
Out on a sunny Berlin balcony,
Tim Keeley and Daniel Krasa are firing words like bullets at each other. First German,then Hindi, Nepali, Polish, Croatian, Mandarin and Thai – they’ve barely spoken one language before the conversation seamlessly melds into another. Together, they pass through about 20 different languages or so in total.
Back inside, I find small groups exchanging tongue twisters. Others are gathering in threes, preparing for a rapid-fire game that involves interpreting two different languages simultaneously. It looks like the perfect recipe for a headache, but they are nonchalant. “It’s quite a common situation for us,” a woman called Alisa tells me.It can be difficult enough to learn one foreign tongue. Yet I’m here in Berlin for the Polyglot Gathering, a meeting of 350 or so people who speak multiple languages – some as diverse as Manx, Klingon and Saami, the language of reindeer herders in Scandinavia. Indeed, a surprising proportion of them are “hyperglots”, like Keeley and Krasa, who can speak at least 10 languages. One of the most proficient linguists I meet here, Richard Simcott, leads a team of polyglots at a company called eModeration – and he uses about 30 languages himself.
With a modest knowledge of Italian and some rudimentary Danish, I feel somewhat out of place among the hyperglots. But they say you should learn from the best, so I am here to try to discover their secrets.
Most of us struggle with the simplest phrases - but it needn't be that way (Credit: Thinkstock)
When you consider the challenges for the brain, it’s no wonder most of us find learning a language so demanding. We have many different memory systems, and mastering a different tongue requires all of them. There’s procedural memory – the fine programming of muscles to perfect an accent – and declarative memory, which is the ability to remember facts (at least 10,000 new words if you want to come close to native fluency, not to mention the grammar). What’s more, unless you want to sound like a stuttering robot, those words and structures have to make it to the tip of your tongue within a split second, meaning they have to be programmed in both “explicit” and “implicit” memory.
Speaking extra languages delays dementia by five years or more
That tough mental workout comes with big payoffs, however; it is arguably the best brain training you can try. Numerous studies have shown that being multilingual can improve attention and memory, and that this can provide a “cognitive reserve” that delays the onset of dementia. Looking at the experiences of immigrants, Ellen Bialystok at York University in Canada has found that speaking two languages delayed dementia diagnosis by five years. Those who knew three languages, however, were diagnosed 6.4 years later than monolinguals, while for those fluent in four or more languages, enjoyed an extra nine years of healthy cognition.
If you want to stay sharp in old age, learning a language could be the best neural workout (Credit: Getty Images)
Those lasting benefits are a stark contrast to the failure of most commercial “brain training” games you can download – whichgenerally fail to offer long-term improvements in memory or attention.
Learning a new language as we age is easier than you might assume
Until recently, however, many neuroscientists had suggested that most of us are too old to reach native-like fluency in a fresh language; according to the “critical period hypothesis”, there is a narrow window during childhood in which we can pick up the nuances of a new language. Yet Bialystok’s research suggests this may have been exaggerated; rather than a steep precipice, she has found that there is a very slight decline in our abilities as we age.
Certainly, many of the hyperglots I meet in Berlin have mastered languages later in life. Keeley grew up in Florida, where he was exposed to native Spanish speakers at school. As a child, he used to tune into foreign radio stations – despite not being able to understand a word. “It was like music to me,” he says. But it was only as an adult that he started travelling the world – first to Colombia, where he also studied French, German and Portuguese at college. He then moved on to Switzerland and Eastern Europe before heading to Japan. He now speaks at least 20 languages fluently, almost all of which were learnt as an adult. “The critical period hypothesis is a bunch of crap,” he says.
Polyglots tend to "inhabit" a language and its culture (Credit: Getty Images)
The question is, how do hyperglots master so many new tongues – and could the rest of us try to emulate them? True, they may just be more motivated than most. Many, like Keeley, are globe-trotters who have moved from country to country, picking up languages as they go. It’s sometimes a case of sink or swim.
Yet even with the best intentions, many of us struggle to speak another language convincingly. Keeley, who is currently writing a book on the “social, psychological and affective factors in becoming multilingual”, is sceptical that it’s simply a question of raw intelligence. “I don’t think it’s a major factor, although it does make it faster to have the analytical ability,” he says.
Cultural chameleons
Instead, he thinks we need to look past the intellect, into the depths of our personality. Keeley’s theory is that learning a new language causes you to re-invent your sense of self – and the best linguists are particularly good at taking on new identities. “You become a chameleon,” he says.
Psychologists have long known that the words we speak are entwined with our identity. It’s a cliche that French makes you more romantic, or Italian makes you more passionate, but each language becomes associated with cultural norms that can affect how you behave – it could be as simple as whether you value outspoken confidence or quiet reflection, for instance. Importantly, various studies have found that multilingual people often adopt different behaviours according to the language they are speaking.
Building friendship is the primary motivation for most hyperglots (Credit: Getty Images)
Different languages can also evoke different memories of your life – as the writer Vladimir Nabokov discovered when working on his autobiography. The native Russian speaker wrote it first in his second language, English, with agonising difficulty, finding that “my memory was attuned to one key – the musically reticent Russian, but it was forced into another key, English”. Once it was finally published, he decided to translate the memoirs back into the language of his childhood, but as the Russian words flowed, he found his memories started to unfurl with new details and perspectives. “His Russian version differed so much he felt the need to retranslate to English,” says Aneta Pavlenko at Temple University in Philadelphia, whose book, The Bilingual Mind, explores many of these effects. It was almost as if his English and Russian selves had subtly different pasts.
Resisting the process of reinvention may prevent you from learning another language so well, says Keeley, who is a professor of cross-cultural management at Kyushu Sangyo University in Japan. He recently ran a survey of Chinese speakers learning Japanese to examine their “ego permeability” – with questions such as “I find it easy to put myself in other’s shoes and imagine how they feel” or “I can do impressions of other people”, and whether you can change your opinions to suit the people you are near. As he suspected, the people who score highly on these traits had much greater fluency in their new language.
It is not just about the amount of time spent learning and using languages
How come? It’s well known that if you identify with someone, you are more likely to mimic them – a process that would effortlessly improve language learning. But the adopted identity, and the associated memories, may also stop you from confusing the language with your mother tongue – by building neural barriers between the languages. “There must be some type of home in your mind for each language and culture and the related experiences, in order for the languages to stay active and not get all mixed together,” Keeley says. “It is not just the amount of time spent learning and using the languages. The quality of the time, in terms of emotional salience, is critical.” Indeed, that might explain why Keeley could switch so effortlessly between those 20-odd languages.
Of all the polyglots, Michael Levi Harris may demonstrate these principles the best. An actor by training, Harris also has an advanced knowledge of 10 languages, and an intermediate understanding of 12 more. Occasionally, his passion has landed him in some difficulty. He once saw an online ad for a Maltese meet-up. Going along, he hoped to find a group of people from Malta, only to walk into a room full of middle-aged women and their white lap dogs – an experience he recently relayed in a short film The Hyperglot. You can see a trailer below.
When I meet him in a cafe near the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, he effortlessly slips into a rather posh, “received pronunciation” English accent, despite being a native New Yorker. As he does so, his whole posture changes as he melds into the new persona. “I’m not really trying to consciously change my character or my persona. It just happens, but I know that I am suddenly different.”
Importantly, Harris thinks that anyone can learn to adopt a new cultural skin in this way – and he has a few tips for how to begin, based on his experiences of acting. The important thing, he says, is to try to imitate without even considering the spelling of the words. “Everyone can listen and repeat,” he says. You may find yourself over-exaggerating, in the same way that an actor may be a little over-the-top in their performance to start with – but that’s a crucial part of the process, he says. “In acting first, you go really big, and then the director says OK, now tone it down. And you do the same with a language.” He also suggests looking carefully at things like facial expressions – since they can be crucial to producing the sounds. Speaking with slightly pouted lips instantly makes you sound a little bit more French, for instance.
Finally, he says you should try to overcome the embarrassment associated with producing "strange" noises – such as the guttural sounds in Arabic, for instance. “You have to realise it’s not foreign to us – when you are disgusted, you already say ‘eugh’. And if you acknowledge and give your subconscious permission to do it in speech, you can make the sound.” That may sound a little silly, but the point is that all this should help you to get over your natural inhibitions. “It’s all to do with owning the language, which is what actors have to do to make the audience believe that these words are yours. When you own words you can speak more confidently, which is how people will engage with you.”
Can thespians teach us all a better way to learn? (Credit: Thinkstock)
There’s one big factor that stops people learning languages efficiently…
Even so, most agree that you shouldn’t be too ambitious, particularly when starting out. “If there’s a single factor that stops people learning languages efficiently, it’s that we feel we have to be native-like – it’s an unreachable standard that looms over us,” says Temple University’s Pavlenko. “The ease of expression is what matters to me a lot – finding a better way to express myself, colloquially.”
Along these lines, you should also practice a little and often – perhaps just for 15-minute stints, four times a day. “I think the analogies with exercise are quite good,” says Alex Rawlings, who has developed a series of polyglot workshops with Richard Simcott to teach their techniques. Even if you are too busy or tired to do serious study, just practising a dialogue or listening to a foreign pop song can help, says Simcott.
In the UK, Australia and US, it is easy to believe that we don’t need to make that effort. Indeed, before I met the hyperglots, I had wondered if their obsession merited the hard work; perhaps, I thought, it was just about bragging rights. Yet all of the hyperglots I meet are genuinely enthusiastic about the amazing benefits that can only be achieved by this full immersion in different languages – including the chance to make friends and connections, even across difficult cultural barriers.
Harris, for instance, describes living in Dubai. “As a Jewish person living in the Middle East, I faced challenges. But it turns out that one of my best friends was from Lebanon,” he says. “And when I moved away, he said ‘when we first met I didn’t think I could be friends with you and now you’re leaving, I’m distraught’. It’s one of the most precious things to me.”
As Judith Meyer, who organised the gathering in Berlin, tells me, she saw Ukrainians and Russians, Israelis and Palestinians all conversing at the gathering. “Learning another language really does open up whole new worlds.”
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