319

After over 300 days, I’m approaching the halfway point. I’m almost a year into this project. And two years is what I’m prepared to devote. You see, I’ve other fish to fry . At 60, I’m disinclined to tie up too many years into too few projects.

I’d like to summarize all my ideas, experiments and conclusions. It has been a blast—figuring out all of the principles. But I’m not into explaining, justifying or selling them. That’s simply not me.

I’m a man, not with a mission, but with many missions. I want to give them all a turn. 

318

At my grandsons’, a Harry Potter video plays. Though I’m seeing it for the first time, I can’t concentrate. 

But then at one point Harry starts speaking Parseltongue, or Snake Language. Everyone, Harry included, is amazed.

“I spoke a different language? But—I didn’t realize—how can I speak a language without knowing I can speak it?”

Me, I’ll read and listen to the series in whatever language is good enough. At some point I’ll switch over to the next good-enough language and continue with novels for the former.

So Harry Potter is now German for me. Japanese to follow.

317

‘B’ is repeating my class. He’s only 20. He spent 4 years at high school. His motivation is low, and he is always late, often absent. The system has failed him. And he isn’t doing himself any favors either.

His English is receptive. His listening is okay. But his writing and speaking are poor. You can hardly understand him.

Would a habit of reading be helpful? I’m sure that it would. Any form of reading that he enjoyed enough to spend many hours doing.

As for me—I like my morning habit of collecting 10 Japanese sentences. 

Immediately after this.

316

So I’ve found a list of the 100 most frequent Spanish words. How could I use that?

Well, I could check and see which ones I recognize. I could count them. I could keep track over time and measure my ‘progress’. I could expand that list to 1000 or 5000. Would that help?

I’m more inclined to look out for those words in actual sentences ‘lifted’ from authentic texts. That’d be cool. I could collect instances where the form of the word varied. I could keep an eye out for different patterns.

Basically, I’d play around and do something, anything.

315

Even in The Good Father by Noah Hawley there’s stuff to do with language learning.

The son comes into contact with Mexicans. He picks up swearwords. Chinga tu madre. Pendeho. Hoto. Their nickname for him, Cabron, means ‘asshole’.

His father, a rheumatologist, explains how doctors balance the literal and the intuitive to diagnose. Right brain and left brain. If too methodical, then there’s no imaginative leap. If too instinctive, then some important criteria might get overlooked.

In class, I try to get across the idea of collecting sentences. Some are starting to get it: vocabulary as sentences, not merely words.

314

I discovered that a colleague is learning German using Duolingo. It motivates her, and it provides the momentum that she needs. I’ve heard the name, and I may even have given the site a look, but I wasn’t familiar with it. After work, I went there and tried it out.

Well, it’s well set up and attractive. And it gives you the feeling that you are achieving something. But there are two points I’m unhappy with.

It supposes that you can build up language knowledge a bit at a time. And it treats near-misses as mistakes.

Other than that—fine.

313

I started yesterday with a group of 10 Japanese high school students from Hiroshima. That got me to recall some Japanese here and there, and enabled me to sit in on some of their conversation.

It also fit in with some ongoing HP1 sentence collection. I only spent a few minutes doing that—the way that I’m grabbing the time to write this entry now—but it all helps to keep up the momentum.

I intend to reread Elizabeth Gilbert’s book again soon too. Its message—being able to create without yielding to fear—is an important one for me.

312

I picked up a Dutch magazine and spent half an hour reading 100 short paragraphs, sentences and snippets: Secrets women have from their husbands. And of course, I forgot that I was reading in another language.

That’s how it always ought to be. That’s how I ought to set it up, and will. Or rather—continue to do so. Have fun. Enjoy.

I’m enjoying Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Big Magic. It has lessons I’ll apply. I’ll do a book of my own along those lines: Any Language I Like. With luck, I can retool something that I’ve more or less written.

311

I’ve been considering just who language acquisition would benefit the most.

Not English speakers. English speakers have no real economic incentive. English is what people wish to gain. And so as numbers go, and drive, we’re looking at places such as China, India, South East Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe. The Japanese, although they value education in general, are not as motivated.

And so really I should concentrate on an English acquisition booklet that could be easily translated. Only when they see just how easily others learn their tongue are English speakers likely to pick up another language too.

310

I spoke with A at work recently about how it would be to simply use our creativity to simply teach—to just do and develop what works best. Instead, within an educational institution there’re so many requirements to meet and boxes to fill. We agreed that any great innovative leap was unlikely to a) happen, and b) survive. Even in Science, the eureka moment happens outside its sphere of influence. Only afterwards is it worked toward to join-the-dots.  

And that all may mean that my new approach to language acquisition will need to establish its roots in its own hothouse.

309

My Spanish needed evaluation, but so does the programme itself.

It works, at least for me. For others? Well, they’d need to try it out. You can’t tell just by looking. Or worse, comparing it with conventional language instruction, unless you admit that that serves maybe 1 in 20.

I wouldn’t claim to have accumulated a vocabulary or mastered a batch of rules. Instead, I have a feel for Spanish, a base, a sense of its sounds, rhythms and patterns.

More than that, though, is that I’ve developed a love for it. I wouldn’t want to let it drop. Ever.

308

At the last and 28th level, the theoretical content is a review of the principles. Which of them has special relevance to them, they consider in 100 words. People that have completed the course do an ‘after’ assessment to measure how they’ve done—if they want to.

I too have multiple things to consider that arose in my new class, in discussion with colleagues, and as ideas into my brain. I’ll discuss them anon, over the next few days.

But to comment on my Spanish, I averaged only about 10 minutes a day, yet I’m quite happy with my progress.

307

The 27th is the penultimate level. Here, we’ll discuss how to set up a routine that promotes continual improvement. We’ll continue the social learning experiment by encouraging comment on others’ posts. I’ll provide a choice of topic that has the participant imagine the future.

But I do need to implement the KISS principle (Keep it simple, stupid!) That goes for the GUTI system, my own practice, and also what I do in my English classroom. There, I need to “take your time, but hurry!” as Kreskin used to say on television.

I’ll compete against my students to collect interesting sentences.

306

At level 26, I address how to address so-called failure, when someone falls off the wagon. It’s about getting back up. The final VOAT is language overlay where a chapter, say, is wallpapered over in another tongue. A choice of topic is offered to write 100 words on—do you beat yourself up, or are you game to experiment?

I’m going to suggest to my new class to collect sentences. Maybe I’ll do that too. And maybe I’ll even do that in a mix of languages, now that my Spanish-only month is coming to an end. Me, the role model!

305

Level 25. Not much further to go. Along the lines of hooking up with others, we’ll examine the histories of polyglots and other successful language learners. How did they mix things up? Why not try to mix a language in each ear, or three or four simultaneous skills.

I downloaded several books by Frank Smith, who is the same age as my mother and still alive. I also decided that I dislike listening to Spanish unsupported at this stage. I need the printed text alongside. That’s important to know, and valuable to have learned. And Semester 2 has started too.

304

At level 24, I ask people to consider hooking up with each other. To what extent are they using social media? Why not use that to build another language? They could even use two non-English languages at once so as to improve in more than one.

I watched a sumo documentary in Japanese about the Bulgarian, Kotooshu. That had me considering learning some Bulgarian in the future. And even some Mongolian so as to be able to approach wrestlers from that country.

You need a reason to learn another language. You also need to feel that it’s no great hurdle.

303

I keep saying ‘days’ yet these modules are levels. On level 23 people consider sustainability. How much at risk are they of dropping out? One way to strengthen the language habit is to engage in ‘situational practice’.

Me, I write 100 words first thing in the morning. I follow that up with some language practice—usually—and in the evenings. But there’s room to attach various other activities to different times of the day.

Listening lends itself to driving and walking. A Kindle is good to carry and pull out at odd moments. And you can leave a book anywhere.

302

What would you do differently? I ask on Day 22. I have introduced several variations to the basic idea, and now I invite people to customize what they do. Another technique I suggest is to make use of subtitles and even karaoke as ways of reading while listening.

I’ve farewelled my 9 students from Shanghai. They appreciated my ideas—one of them even mentioning ‘i+1’ in her farewell speech. I say farewell to Frank Smith too. His book has literally fallen apart, so I’m going to have to pdf it.

I wonder too: should I try out Medical Laboratory Science?

301

I’m counting down the first year of this project. That goes for GUTI too as I discuss Day 21.

Anyone can be a great teacher, depending on how they are used. Describe a teacher who influenced you greatly in 100 words. Then, calculate your Recognition Index.

Mine is 49.5% for Spanish when I worked it out yesterday. It is a weighted average of word and sentence recognition, similar to what I did on Day 40. 

And finally, oh so many of my ideas are being supported by Frank Smith! The book is falling apart, but his reasoning is so sound!

300

On my 300th day of 100-word journalling, I discuss day 20 of GUTI.

I talk about the adverse effects on learning of pressure. I invite people to give the Shuffled Sentence System a go. And they write about any interest that they might exploit.

I saw a Japanese physiotherapy student under pressure, and it was discussed in Frank Smith’s book, Reading Without Nonsense. Pressure leads to tunnel vision.

Another interesting concept—of many—is that we all carry about a theory of the world inside of our heads. Frank Smith is deep. I can see where Krashen got his start.

299

Memory is the subject of the 19^th day. How well do people rate their everyday memory? Then, they go over the theory of why forgetting is essential. And they try the shuffled sentence system variation on a theme.

I’m not finding the time to do much Spanish recently. However, I did figure out a way to make progress in it, and to measure that progress.

If you take a 100-word passage—or maybe ten 10-word sentences—you can figure out your ‘recognition index’ by highlighting know words and/or grading the sentences for understanding.

I feel like trying that out soon.

298

On the 18th day of GUTI, we spend a second day on the brain, looking at those principles by which it learns best, and how to effect a right-brain shift. I invite a 100-word reflection on something they’ve learned that they couldn’t have mastered from a book. As a VOAT, I introduce the running dictation.

My group from Shanghai—Christine, Bonnie, Lisa, Samantha, Rain, Bamboo, Jackson, Kitty, Tiffany and Bingham are the best ever. It’s their attitude. They have absolutely no affective filter. Christine, their teacher, spoke of  ‘collecting’ sentences from Oscar Wilde. I look forward to a fantastic week.

297

What happens on Day 17? We take a look at the brain—how it learns things. What are the characteristics of their brains?—100 words please. Our second VOAT is to cut and paste, or even copy out, selected sentences and phrases to create a collection.

This is my first day of a week with Shanghai students. It’s my job to give them a great English experience. It’ll be my 3^rd short course this year, with more to follow.

I listened ‘cold’ to the start of HP1 in Mandarin. I caught once or two words just like that: Dursley fuu-fuu.

296

Day 16. First, we discuss the need for a very great change, not just a tweak. People write about the greatest change they’ve seen in their lives. And then they try out the first ‘variation on a theme’—VOAT. That is: to highlight. Instead of underlining unknown words, the idea is to highlight everything that you DO know.

I’m doing that regularly with Spanish. Electronic text highlights nicely. It shows up those passages ready for subsequent shadowing, sentence collecting or the like.

Last thing yesterday I stumbled across a French documentary about Jim Morrison in Paris. It had English subtitles.

295

The ‘theory’ of Day 15 is that all languages are easy. That they only involve getting used to them. They’re not difficult but different (to the one you’re most familiar with) in degree. In 100 words people reflect on one of their skills. They begin to individualize what they do by choosing to repeat the previous block of text, or continue with the next.

Personally, I enjoy copying and pasting the Spanish that I know on top of the English text. Then I go over that while listening to Spanish. That determines the rate at which I go through HP1.

294

Halfway through Get Used To It, the basics are in place. Plain sailing from now on. And so we look back. How has schooling failed with respect to language instruction? I tell the people what I think. They write 100 words of either a good or a bad school experience. And we repeat the triad on a new section of text.

I’m really curious about where this will lead me. I happened to score a brace of Danish novels from the Lilliput library outside of the Marsh Centre. I’ve scored a foothold in the English Language department at Otago Polytechnic.

293

The 13th day is interesting. Then, we examine how language learning evolved. I’ll invite people to reflect just how little grammar instruction has actually helped them. And we’ll repeat the triad (trident?) on the same block of text.

I’m reading The Bookman’s Promise by John Dunning. That’s the second book I’ve come across where Richard Burton plays a role. (The other is Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld series.)

“Wherever I go, I make an attempt to learn the language.” 

‘He would pass among the people as one of them, having fluently learned their language in a few weeks or even days.’

292

For the 12^th day, I discuss why this hasn’t been done before. I invite people to do a triad: doing the same text three different ways. And, as a 100-word topic, they consider the role that Mistake Phobia might play in their lives. 

Myself these days, I enjoy half an hour of Spanish early in the morning. I’ve become accustomed to handling text that I understand much less than 95% of. I’m happy to glean what I can from whatever is in front of me. Now, if I could apply that attitude to life in general that would be fantastic!

291

I may need to tweak modules 9 through 11 so that the theory and the practice match up better. Because on the 11th day I want to have people read and listen—simultaneously—to Spanish. Their preparations in the previous 2 modules has got them ready.

Listening has been added to the mix. And so I ask people to tell of their experience with audiobooks—100 words, naturally.

As for me, I’m finding it quite doable to spend 30 minutes in the morning on a 9 to 11 ‘triad’. Actually, I do a fourth component. I do an ‘overlay conversion’.

290

On day 10, we get onto the core technique of Get Used To It: linking reading to listening. I get people to listen while following along in their own language—a form of cheating. And then I get them to write 100 words about how they ‘cheat’ when reading ordinarily.

Mami asked me to create two streams. She, like Benny Lewis, is motivated by conversation. And so I shall make sure that the ‘variations on a theme’ provide alternative ways for people such as her (and him).

In my sleep, Spanish phrases are starting to pop up. This is working!

289

On the 9^th day we get down to it. The whole module is about Heinrich Schliemann. I describe his two-books-in-parallel system. For practice, I give people a try. And in 100 words they write whether they think they could do the same. So all up a nice, compact module.

I too had a satisfying day in that I added 10 books to my foreign books collection. $1 each. 3 Dutch, 3 German, 3 French and 1 Arabic primer. I regret now not getting one Danish book too, but I may return for it!

Oh, and HP1 Spanish in the morning.