Starting French

[pir]

I think I see what @tarvos is warning of, but I'm more with @AlexTG in my own language studies.

I've seen what Iguanamon describes, people becoming too focussed on detail too soon (I empathize because part of me is like that; I love understanding nuances), and getting bogged down in trying for perfection. Perfect is the enemy of good. I have had that motto nailed up over my desk. I have also seen (usually new) language learners switch from program to program without ever really settling on one, and basically giving up after a while because "they just have no talent for languages". I see the same thing in the weightlifting community, where some people also jump from program to program every few weeks. These tend to be people who, for one reason or another, expect much more progress than they are seeing, and so they think it must be a problem with the specific program they're using, and they switch to another one. Rinse, lather, repeat, until they give up because after the 4th or 5th try it probably seems like they just can't do it. Or maybe they stick with it but continue to switch and consequently never make a lot of progress.

That's not me. I switch / add on because I know how I work, I know when I get bored, when I am not challenged enough, when I am challenged too much, when something that is generally working for others -- and even has worked for me in the past -- does not work at this point in time. I have chronic clinical depression, which has ruined my concentration, and saps my energy and follow-through, and I have to use a lot of stupid tricks to keep myself going on things that are not essential for survival; heck, even on things that are necessary. I overlearn because I can't really buckle down anymore, but I know overlearning will get me there, it'll just be slower. Or realistically, it won't be slower, because without it I would throw in the towel altogether -- it'd only be slower for who I was in my twenties, and I have to keep myself from using that standard; it is water under the bridge.

There is also something to be said for trying new things over one's lifetime. Just as one example, I was taught very, very differently from how I study now; I mostly learned to cram vocabulary and grammar. Oh, it worked to a point; I have retained some French vocabulary from back then for more than 40 years! But I hated it, and it made me drop French for a long time. I also never got a feel for the language, I didn't learn to speak it well, and I had an atrocious accent. In my twenties I still had a fantastic memory, and I could just read things twice and have them memorized. Now I can read them 10 times and few things stick. So it has been useful for me to look at other methods over the years, and try them out and see how they work for me (and do that several times over because I keep changing). Now I am "hacking" Spanish, which I've never done before, and it's fascinating, and fun, and wow, I can say more things in Spanish after a month than I could say in French after 2 years of high school. But I already know I won't keep doing this because it's too half-assed for me; I'm no Benny Lewis or Tim Ferriss, all extraverted and brash; I want to understand the grammar and all the nuances.

I generally don't try to tell people "they're doing it wrong" unless they explicitly ask me for my opinion, because who am I to tell them their way of doing it is crap, when it is actually making them enthusiastic and eager to learn? That is more than half the battle right there, enjoying what you're doing. I don't actually think it matters whether the enthusiasm is for communication or for understanding the inner workings of the language; I think both are legitimate pursuits -- but one needs to be conscious of the difference. If somebody comes to me and says "I am not having fun and I feel like giving up", or "I can't actually form a single sentence when I try to speak with somebody", then I'll volunteer other options (maybe they are indeed half-assing it way too much -- or maybe they're doing exactly the opposite and it sucks all the fun out of it for them).

For me, "half-assing" everything (more like 70%ing) leads to decent enough results. I am not in this to break records in language acquisition. I want to get a feel for the new language, and somewhere there is a fine line between too half-assed, and too concentrated. I think I am pretty good at finding it for myself -- as far as other people are concerned, that's their business.