DaveAgain wrote:I watched a travel documentary recently about a man walking through the Pyrenees. When he was in the Basque country he met a polyglot miller, the miller said he spent a lot of his time thinking/self-talking in his various languages.
Thanks for the link! I just watched the first episode and saw the miller of whom you spoke. Speaking of spoke or speak, he speaks Basque, Castillian (both assumed on my part given he's a native of that region), but also English, French, Italian and Catalan which were learned through reading and thinking/self-talk as you described in these languages.
It's a pretty area that reminds me of part of my childhood, (but far from the Basque Country), as it is very green and wet and is home to the pretty rocky streams familar to me from my childhood too.
It's also interesting that you brought this up as an idea of mine resurfaced again this morning. That is to think more in my main foreign languages and repeat (silently) my outward English language interactions internally in Dutch or French. I think I lasted 5 minutes in Dutch this morning then forgot all about it, but I will endeavour to do more of this.
DaveAgain wrote:EDIT
That said, I've been reading a number of meditation/mindfulness books recently. Multi-tasking is not reccommened in any of them
I guess we adapt to our situations, ideal or not. At least whenever I study at my desk I very rarely reply to any phone calls or messages and dedicate myself to focused study and I really love this and time flies! For the moment though, I need to multi-task or face far less foreign language exposure, since if I ignore what I feel needs my attention in the near future, I could regret that for the rest of my days. Thus, languages and I are meeting a sensible compromise, and for who knows how long.
I'll read this some day, I hope. Cheers