Author: admin

Even though I speak nine languages I am quite opposed to multiculturalism, or at least the ideology of multicultualism. The ideology of multiculturalism in Western countries promotes the position that immigrants should hold on to their ancestral culture rather than integrate or assimilate to the culture of the country to which they have emigrated. I think that promoting separation over integration is wrong.

People should be allowed to choose what they want to do. There should be no forced integration but there should also be no official encouragement to stay separate based on ancestry. The premise of multiculturalism is that ancestry, or assumed ancestry, should dictate your culture. This idea has many serious disadvantages.

First of all it works against the development of an inclusive sense of community within the host country. It encourages people to only see their original ethnic community as “their community”. This weakens solidarity in the host society.

Second, multiculturalism suggests that someone of a particular ethnic origin has an obligation to learn his/her ancestral language and culture, even in the second generation. There should be no such obligation. If I want to learn a language not related to my ancestry in preference to the language of my ancestors, that should be a matter of free choice.

There is an inherent contradiction in multiculturalism since the cultures that are promoted as being worthy of preserving are usually themselves the result of cultural blending. If French or Chinese or Moroccan culture is already the results of various cultures blending together, why should this blending process or assimilation in a new country be considered undesirable.

As a linguist I consider that I am free to learn any language and to enjoy any culture. I oppose the bureaucratic imposition of the parents cultural identity on a new generation of citizens. What is the connection to language learning? I will cover that in another post where I will point out that tying ancestry to language is a major obstacle to language learning.

People who come from a non-Western language background, have a much tougher time learning English. They do not have the Latin and Greek based vocabulary that is common to so many European languages.They have also not been exposed to the Western way of thinking that is behind much of the reading that we all do in school. The origin of the Western way of expressing ideas lies in the classics of ancient Greece and Rome, which have inspired centuries of Western literature and influenced how we express ourselves.

I have found a web site which I would recommend to any person of non-European background as an excellent place to become familiar with the theories of classical rhetoric. Here‘s the link. Spend some time studying this content and the different techniques of conveying ideas and persuading others. I think it will be quite helpful. It is recommended for advanced learners.

I just finished a wonderful week of skiing at Big White near Kelowna in the BC Interior. The climate is a little colder than the coastal range near Vancouver. The snow is light and plentiful. The runs were long and varied. There were steep bowls with fresh powder snow, moguls, long giant slalom type of runs, and skiing through the trees.

I went with my son, daughter-in-law, her mother and our three grandchildren. We stayed in a chalet we rented right on the hill. In fact all the accommodation at Big White is “ski in ski out.”

The temperature varied between minus 5 and 0 Centigrade. We had two days of blue sunshine and three days of variable visibility and snow. But we need the snow so that was all right.

In the evenings my son and I played a high quality of outdoor pick-up hockey on an outdoor rink. We also took the whole family including grandchildren and grandparents for night-time tubing down a groomed tubing hill.

The grandparents had time to spoil their grandchildren and we had lovely meals at our chalet every evening, with plenty of help from all. New Year’s eve we had our champagne and went to bed early in order to be first on the slopes the next day.

I did not have time to think about language learning except when I sat beside some snowboarders from Korea who were studying English in Kelowna.

People always ask me how quickly they can “learn” a second language, like English for example. I always answer that it depends on your level, and whether the language you are learning shares a lot of vocabulary with a language you already know (Italian-Spanish-even English; Korean-Japanese-Chinese etc.). Most of all it depends on how much effort you put in.

Along with motivation, intensity is one of the most important principles of language learning. If you spend at least 90 minutes per day for six days out of seven every week, you will make a significant breakthrough in three months. If you study 3 hours a week you will achieve very little.

A breakthrough might mean getting to basic conversation ability starting from zero. It might mean going from basic conversation to the ability to express more complex thoughts and read comfortably. You will know when you have made a breakthrough and it feels good.

Of course your activity must be intense. Sitting in language class may not be intense, especially if there 15 other students in the class. Personal study is intense. I am talking about reading, listening, learning words and phrases and using them in writing and speaking. You can do that with a minimum amount of tutoring.

Language learning is an ongoing process. You are always less than perfect but you should be constantly improving if you do it right. It is a long road of gradually getting more and more comfortable in the language. It should always be enjoyable but it does require deliberate effort.

I am not sure if this clarifies things or makes things more confusing.

There are courses on academic writing and on business writing. For people who already write correctly and well, these might be helpful. For people who lack sufficient control over the words and phrases of the English language, these courses are misleading.

There is only one kind of English prose -clear, concise and well constructed prose. If you control the words and phrases of the language it is easy to learn how to start with a “theme sentence” in every paragraph and the other little conventions of writing that are taught in these special writing courses. Without the vocabulary you do not have the resources to express yourself.

If your mind is muddled, no amount of courses on academic writing will help you.

That being said, once you have brought your vocabulary up to the required level, by all means read everything you can find on specialized writing. Start looking on the web where it is available free of charge. Or just buy a book on the subject.

More than most fields of learning, language learning is a matter of attitude. In a way it is an escape from reality. Reality is your native language. The new language is make believe, at least at first. You are pretending to be something you are not, a natural speaker of another language. You are imitating the behaviour of another culture. You become an actor, so you need to let go of your inhibitions.

As a university student in France 40 years ago I had to give a speech in class. Every time I went to say the word “responsable” in French, I said it wrong. I said “responsible” as in English. Every time I said it, the whole class laughed. I used that word many times. I could not understand why everyone would just burst out laughing each time. Afterwards I was told. I did not mind, but I never made that mistake again. By making mistakes, and sometimes through repeatedly making the same mistakes, we eventually learn.

When I lived and worked in Japan I was frequently in meetings where I was the only non-Japanese. Once I became fluent in Japanese, I was never conscious of not being Japanese. I felt as if I were part of the same group as I saw around the table from me. You do not just try to imitate the people of the target language, you almost try to become one of them. The barriers are removed and you leave the real world of your native language behind to join the new world of the other language.

People who resist the new language, who ask “why do they say it that way?”, these people have trouble. People who are happy joining the new group will find that they are able to absorb the new language with much less effort. So lighten up and enjoy it.

I enjoy learning languages and I am sure one reason is because I have had success. I certainly enjoy learning languages more now than when I was a high school student learning French in Montreal in the 1950s. In those days I had no strong desire to communicate in French with anyone. If I had to deal with French speaking Montrealers it was more comfortable for me to speak English.

Today that is different. Even for a language that I can hardly speak at all, like Korean, I prefer to struggle with my Korean than to speak English. I enjoy doing it and I do not mind appearing to be awkward. So I enjoy learning languages but I recognize that it might be an acquired taste. Language learning at first seems a daunting task in terms of the work involved and the damage to our egos.

I am convinced that to achieve anything in language learning, to overcome the obstacles, requires intensity. When I take on a language with the intention of raising my level, of achieving a breakthrough, I have to commit to doing it almost every day for a period of three months at least. I see so many people who go to class once a week, or even once a day, but do not achieve any intensity Interior designers. They are passive learners, going through the motions of learning. They are not deliberate, motivated, high-intensity learners. They do not get to that feeling of weightlessness, the breathrough stage.

Now I guess you could argue that not everyone is motivated to speak a foreign language. But then if the learner is not motivated why even bother going to the language class in the first place. If you are going to spend the time, do it with intensity. Develop the habits of intensity.

A big part of intensity is the efficiency of your study methods. Much of traditional language learning is not efficient and therefore does not enable the learner to achieve the required level of intensity. When we designed The Linguist system we designed it for intensity and efficiency.