Comments on: How I Learned Spanish By Doing Nothing

By: Mexico…Here I Come, Again! | Wandering Earl

Mexico…Here I Come, Again! | Wandering Earl — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:58:52 +0000

[...] time working on my projects (including some super-exciting changes to this site), practicing my Spanish and eating huaraches until I’m free to head off to places known as Syria, Lebanon and [...]

By: Earl

Earl — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:13:28 +0000

Haha…at least you tried!!

By: Dina

Dina — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:01:44 +0000

I tried to pick up some Maori, but not quite successful! I did watch the Maori channels several times, didn’t pick up anything though
Dina´s last blog ..An elephant goes camping

By: Earl

Earl — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:47:09 +0000

Hey Dave and Deb – You should definitely get that plan rolling! Moving here was a great decision and I still can’t believe how much I’ve learned in just six months. Of course, I wish I had done this years ago as I think I’m going to be much more motivated to pick up more of the local languages during my future travels. So the sooner the better I say…

And thanks for taking a moment from your India travels to comment!

By: Earl

Earl — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:22:38 +0000

Hey Anthony – It’s amazing what the brain will do when it doesn’t have any other choice. And your mother was certainly lucky to be immersed in foreign cultures as a child, allowing her to easily pick up some valuable life skills and experiences. As we get older, it definitely takes a little longer, or a lot longer, to process everything. The thought of learning ‘multiple languages’ at this point in life seems quite daunting to me!

By: Dave and Deb

Dave and Deb — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:43:34 +0000

Good for you! We found that when we were traveling around Central America and Mexico, our Spanish improved quickly. While we were by no means fluent, we found it easy to learn also. Once we were forced to speak it. I think that the best way to learn another language is to move there like you did. We have had a dream of spending a year in a Spanish Speaking country to learn the language. You have inspired us to get our butts in gear.

By: Anthony Feint

Anthony Feint — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:49:06 +0000

Immersion in a culture or country is the best way to learn a language. My mother learnt multiple languages as a child simply by being immersed in different countries and having no other option but to speak the language.
Anthony Feint´s last blog ..Musings from a Founder

By: Earl

Earl — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:23:25 +0000

Hey Armen – Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I always look forward to hearing your perspectives on my posts.

It seems quite easy to get so caught up in thinking about a goal that we falsely believe that the observation and constant review is all we need. And this process is quite powerful, as we are able to convince ourselves that a goal is unreachable, a plan is not feasable, etc. without ever truly putting ourselves out there into the environment that will actually help us make progress.

By: Armen Shirvanian

Armen Shirvanian — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:30:11 +0000

Hi Earl.

Great point here. So many things in our thoughts are counter-intuitive, in my view. One might think that all the review they were doing to learn a language would be the important thing before they got there, but the important thing is to be there. We often think we must pursue someone to get them, but the best method is to be as we are and let them come to us. If we seek some form of business success, the best way to get it is not to watch it every day, but to do things in relation to it and leave it to bloom on its own.

Those examples didn’t all relate to the message here but they represent counter-intuitive things.

Your message here does tell us that the real learning happens on-site, as is the case with languages, jobs, websites, research, sports, and so on.
Armen Shirvanian´s last blog ..Don’t Take Someone For Granted

By: Earl

Earl — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:36:51 +0000

Hey Dina – Seems like you’re addicted to language learning!

Actually, that’s a similar approach that I took when I used to live in Thailand. The first thing I did was to learn the characters so that I could read as much as possible and this helped me to gain a decent understanding of the every day language in a relatively short period of time. It makes quite a difference when you can read the signs and the menus and it always gave me a boost of motivation when I found myself understanding characters that used to seem so strange to me.

At this point in my travels, I have learned the basics of several languages but unfortunately none fluently because I tend to move around too much! But wherever I go, even if its for a short time, I make sure that I become familiar with the language as much as possible. It adds an entirely new and rewarding dimension to traveling that I wouldn’t want to leave out.

You can always learn Maori out there in NZ!