Something that is fucking me up right now is that I am looking into how brains learn stuff - specifically language. Because here is the thing: I learned languages always fairly good, as long as you just gave me texts in the language, or general media, and someone to talk to in that language. And now I am finding out that this is because this way or learning it is language acquisition, rather than language learning. Basically, acquisition is the way we acquire first languages, while language learning is the way schools teach language: with a curriculum, vocables, and grammar rules for you to learn by heart.
Cool, I think. So the issue was likely that my AuDHD brain just did not gel well with the way school is set up. What else is new?
But now I look into the research on this topic, and fuck you, actually there is some good science that shows that if you want someone to be proficient in a language, allowing them to acquire the language works a whole lot better. Which then also explains that accursed class trip to England in 10th grade, where I was translating for my English teacher, who constantly gave me bad grades. Because the man could do school English, but functional English? Yeah, forget it.
Don't get me wrong: it does seem as if an integrated way of learning and acquiring is technically the best, as people who only acquire a language might struggle with certain aspects of it. (Which also explains why so many native English speakers struggle with specific bits of grammar, like if-sentence construction, and why a lot of German speakers can actually do not certain verb conjugations that are less commonly used in normal everyday life.) As it is seen by me getting hung up on Japanese grammar, even though it is technically not that hard. Because my Japanese is about 95% acquired, and then rusted down due to lack of use. But because nobody actually explained the grammar to me, I am now sitting there at times like: "In what order do I need to put all those words?"
But yeah, example No. 117 of why the way schools are set up is actually a fucking joke. You do not learn what you are supposed to learn, and it is largely because the way you are getting taught is a way that will not work for about 70-80% of all students. Schools exist to break kids and to hold them so that they parents can be exploited by capitalism. They do not exist as places of learning.
