Re: successful language learners -- the little details

From: Sean Holland (seanholland_at_pants.telus.net)
Date: 10/09/04 

Date: Sat, 09 Oct 2004 00:59:01 GMT

in article 53b668b5.0410080509.263290c9@posting.google.com, Justin Wilson at
jpwilso@bgnet.bgsu.edu wrote on 10/8/04 6:09 AM:

> Hi again everyone:
(snip)
>
> Well, what do YOU think !? =)
>
> -Justin

The bits I read made me think you may be a tad uptight about the whole
thing. Maybe some rigid system will work for you. You might have that kind
of personality. But I was exhausted by the beginning of your second
paragraph.
Study a little, then go out and USE it. You'll find out the gaps you need to
fill by having conversations with people. REAL conversations, in real life.
Loosen up the grammar-fear gland in your brain by drinking beer with real
folks and trying to talk about real things. When you find there was
something you really wanted to say, but couldn't, study up on that. When you
find someone said something that you could almost get, but not quite, and
you really wanted to understand it, study up on that.
That was my way, anyway. And now, not having lived in Japan for a long time,
I've lost a lot of my Japanese "edge," and I don't have the patience to read
much in Japanese, but I can still maintain real friendships in the language
without my friends having to make too many allowances for my crappy
Japanese, so I'm satisfied.
  

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