#language acquisition

NL: [while in the balatro shop] I dunno man, call me crazy but I think sometimes it would be better for some people to learn casual form first. I dunno why the masu-form-first thing is so universal. [reading chat] “-2, -2, it's just how everyone does it” Oh so just because everyone does it it means it has to be universally applied in every classroom and by every self-taught language learner without exception? C’mon dude, the world is a complicated place, let's not be boiling things down into absolutes. [opens arcana pack and puts finger on chin] What am I doing here? [gets distracted by chat again] “It’s probably more efficient for learning that’s why everyone does it.”? How do you figure that? Also literally every single native japanese speaker learns casual form first bro, they’re speaking with family. [voice starts getting more bombastic] And I can tell you now, an infant is learning quicker than you. You’ve probably been studying for four years on a 12 hundred day duolingo streak trying to minmax your spaced repetition algorithm on your fuckin uhh anki deck, you got the JLPT N3 kanji list memorised and still can’t say the three words you need in an average exchange with the lawson clerk - meanwhile a toddler whose brain isn’t even half as developed as yours is spitting coherent grammatical japanese 12 straight hours a day, and you think your method is [does finger air quotes] “more efficient”. Right. [pauses for 2 seconds] Now I know what you’re gonna say: [whiny nerd voice] “oough but NL first language and second language acquisition are different” [starting to sound genuinely pissed] Oh yeah how? How are they different and how does that difference mean that this specific thing needs to be taught differently? Read some Krashen bro, educate yourself. [picks the hermit, goes to next stake] [makes another inadvisable glance at chat] [reading in a doubtful tone] "In a classroom setting you have to speak formally to a teacher, it’s a respect thing.”? Some people don’t learn from a classroom, man! Some people learn from their families and friends and partners! A lotta people are self taught, are you telling me they need to start genuflecting to themselves?! ALL I’m sayin is that SOME people [puts both hands up to camera] NOT ALL, SOME people MIGHT have a better learning experience if they started with casual form, okay?

Source

Who knew that Soviet Winnie-the-Pooh was secretly a grammar teacher in disguise?

Just posted about learning Russian verbs of motion through the philosophical Soviet bear who's nothing like his Disney cousin. This Винни-Пух contemplates existence while getting stuck in doorways and somehow makes пойти vs идти make SENSE.

The cartoon is only 10 minutes but I turned it into three full lessons because there's so much hidden language gold in there. Like that phrase "А не пойти ли нам в гости?" that breaks every grammar rule you learned but Russians say it all the time.

The possible reason for this misconception has two layers.

Non-native language users' speech patterns/utterances (short & choppy or word-chunk-like utterances; "Mom food love", "you no college", "Rocky new to ball") resemble first-stage speech patterns, occurring at a very early age, in infancy.

People generally associate language proficiency with their cognitive ability. Language is a powerful medium, which is used permanently once acquired & with much repetition, that can directly convey one's thoughts. Aligning with the said notion, people show great appreciation & respect to the people who have a way with words.

Misinterpretation occurs when putting these two together:

An adult non-native person's cognitive ability is equal to their current (non-1st) language level.

This misconception is prevalently & frequently consumed as jokes on sitcoms, especially as a hallmark joke for non-native characters.

(Character having an exaggerated accent with wonky pronunciation & wrong intonation. Mistook similar words or a certain word in phrases, and it happens all the time. The other character tries to rectify his phrase "No, it's~ not ~, (character's name). (*THAT DREADED LAUGH TRACK ENSUES*) At this point, you can probably hear the recorded laugh tracks any time that character utters a single word with their distinctive speech repertoire.)

Few examples:

Gloria Delgado-Pritchett (from "Modern Family") once shouted out with genuine frustration about being laughed at by others for her English.

Cha Eugene (from "Debut or Die" ("데뷔 못하면 죽는 병 걸림")), also a multilingual character (whose first language is English) and became an idol in Korea.

At first, the main character (MC) from the same group misconstrues Eugene as juvenile (not only that, BUT also his peppy, energetic personality & being the youngest member of the team heightened this notion). However, as they know each other more, MC realizes that Eugene is a very considerate & much more mature person, and he was blinded by the language. There are moments of this realization depicted in the novel, here and there.

most homunculi are born with an innate grasp of language' unlike babies•

some homunculi do have to acquire language like a baby' but i,ve never figured out what makes them different from the rest of us•

oddly' i,ve never met a homunculus who was created with an innate knowledge of danish•

…

‘Learning Ojibwe in college and pursuing learning the language and teaching the language, I hadn't really thought about babies speaking it as their first language,’ Erdrich said.

‘It seemed like this impossible thing because of how much work it would be, how hard it would be to have a whole community and other babies to be speaking Ojibwe, but it's happening! And it's amazing because it's the peer language here so the kids are speaking Ojibwe to each other,’ she said.

…Grandma’s House is not like other college language programs. Learning a Native language in an academic setting is beneficial for language revitalization, but academic learning does not usually include learning the traditions, heritage or spirit within a Native community.

…

Although it’s common to refer to a language no longer commonly spoken as a ‘dead language,’ some people in the language revitalization movement instead refer to them as ‘asleep.’ The idea is that sleeping languages can be awakened through family and community efforts.

Waking up Native languages can also bring intergenerational healing.”

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?"