Today we're going to be learning and discovering how we can learn more like a polyglot and the
first thing that might come to your mind is, well what is a polyglot? A polyglot is someone
who knows and can communicate in many languages, and so today we're going to go over 4 key aspects
of what makes language learning so successful for polyglots. So, the very first thing is immersion,
and so we want to focus on how we can immerse ourselves in the language and so immersion and
we're going to break that into three different key aspects and these are actually the three
keys to learning any new language and it's comprehensible input comprehensible output
and feedback. And don't worry, it's not actually as complicated as it sounds. So, comprehensible
input well what is that in a nutshell it just basically means exposure and and so polyglots are
experts at this they just expose themselves and inundate themselves with tons of content in the
target language that they're learning one of the key aspects of that comprehensible part is that
they're not exposing themselves to high-level language you know they're not listening to
physics classes in that target language they're listening to simple things maybe short stories
or podcasts or watching movies or tv shows or even content that is geared more towards children
and so this really ties into the Yerkes-Dodson law, so if you look at this chart over here
you'll see two red spots and so this is where we don't want to be so we want to
make sure that we're challenging ourselves to the degree to where it's actually doing us good
so if we tend to do things that are too easy and are too simple we're not going to make progress
and so we're going to get bored and we're going to get tired now if we go to the other extreme and we
are just way in over our heads and you know maybe we're watching a sign language conversation and
they are just their hands are on fire and there's no way that we can keep up and so then we're going
to be stressed and restless and discouraged so really what we want to find is we want to get
right in that middle to where something is just challenging enough to keep us focused
and engaged and that is the sweet spot and so whatever that is for you that is what we're going
to go for so we want to expose ourselves to lots of comprehensible input and again that's going
to be this content in the language that you're trying to learn now the second aspect of that is
going to be comprehensible output and so that is basically this is really the challenging part for
i think most of us because um we're perfectionists we're afraid of making mistakes but it's that
comprehensible output is when we're producing the language um that we're trying to learn and so
this can be really uh challenging because we don't want to we're scared or maybe we're introverted or
we don't want to make those mistakes we don't want to look silly and we're subconscious and we're
very self-conscious as adults versus children who have no problem uh just using what they know so
the comfort zone right and if we just consistently stay in that comfort zone we're never going to
make the progress that we want and so it's not until we reach outside of that comfort zone that
we really will start making that progress so even though you may only know 100 signs or 200 signs
that's enough to be comprehensible and so it's just using what you know and that will continually
not only solidify what you have been learning so far but it's actually going to really help
you identify what you need to learn next so that is really a key aspect of language learning in
general now the last one is actually feedback and I'm going to steal this point from Chris
Lonsdale's ted talk that we discussed in the previous unit and one of the things that he
talked about aside from high frequency language is a language parent and so i'm going to dive in a
little bit deeper as far as what that entails and so the very first point is a good language parent
is going to work to understand what you're saying and it's funny because he mentions
that spouses actually aren't that great of a language parent and we'll kind of get into why
that is but we want to find somebody that works to understand what you're saying and so we want
to find somebody that isn't overly critical and somebody that isn't looking to put us down
we want to look for somebody that really truly wants to understand you and parents are naturally
like that way with their children you know they really want to understand what their kids are
saying so they're going to put in the effort to try to understand the second point is again
not correcting every single mistake we want to find that good language parent and somebody that
um is going to not correct every mistake because we will make tons of mistakes and we think about
a language parent with their child and we don't correct every single mistake they make and if they
do make a mistake usually we correct that mistake by modeling the language for them and by repeating
what that sentence should have been and so they're learning from modeling and not necessarily
criticism uh the next one is confirms understanding by using correct language
we want to find somebody that is going to be able to confirm that they understand
by using the correct language so this would be modeling and so let's say somebody
uses a sentence and it's a little off but you understand you worked to understand it you didn't
correct that mistake but you're going to go ahead and model what that was for and so obviously this
language parent is going to be somebody that is more advanced than you and so this is going to
be somebody that can correct you somebody that can understand you somebody that is patient and that
leads into the last point is that they they're going to be using words the learner knows so we
think again the way we talk to our children are is much different than we would talk to other adults
because we're matching and emulating the language that they are familiar with you know if you have a
two-year-old son or daughter you're not going to say you need to go to the restroom you're going
to say oh do you need to go potty and so that's where their language is at and a good language
parent is going to be able to identify um where you are at personally and be able to match you
and then again kind of challenge you a little bit and get into that your thoughts and law to where
you're being challenged so you'll be able to make that progress and so those are three uh four key
aspects that you'll want to look for in a good language parent you can find somebody that is
of a higher level that will work to understand what you're saying will not
correct every mistake you do want mistakes to be corrected but usually by modeling and by using
that correct language and confirming that understanding and definitely somebody that can
match your language so that's basically the first point the big thing the big takeaway is that we
really need to immerse ourselves in the language if we want to make progress in the language
and so again that's comprehensible input we're we're taking in information and we're taking in
lots of content and from various sources it could be content meant for kids it could be content
um that is sign language first and maybe they have captions so we can follow along with what they're
saying or it could be interpreted content it could be music it could be lots of different things
but the key aspect is that we want to expose ourselves to as much of the language as possible
and then we want to go outside our comfort zone and use what we know and
get that feedback from somebody that can be a good language parent for us the second way we can learn
like a polyglot is to have a plan all polyglots have in common is that they have some kind of
system in place and that system may vary from person to person but they have some kind of plan
and the reason why that is so important is this quote that I really enjoy from Benjamin Franklin
and he says if you fail to plan you are planning to fail that is so true if we don't come up with a
plan eventually we're going to run out of steam and eventually it's going to stop being fun
and we're just going to give up so that's why it is so important that we in the beginning
come up with a and identify our reason why we're learning the language but secondly come up with
that plan come up with achievable goals and come up with a system that you can be consistent with
and that leads to another quote by hal elrod and this is a really inspirational thing so
he mentions every goal we have is preceded by a process the secret to success is to be committed
to the daily process and that's really the key aspect right there is a daily process and this is
what makes learning us a language as a student so difficult we are so um we're only learning it from
maybe one time a week and so there's one day where we learn and then there's six days where we don't
and then we learn and then we don't and it's this it's really hard to kind of gain that momentum
when it's start stop start stop like that and so the secret is really to find a daily process
that works for you and he goes on to say create excitement and enthusiasm for the possibility of
achieving your goals and again this all ties back to having the reason why to having a system of how
and then you can really accomplish the what aspect of things to really focus
on the uh the language itself and so that daily process what did what can that look like and so
again we want to expose ourselves to as much of the language as possible and it doesn't have to be
lessons all the time it doesn't have to be here's 10 words for today here's a list of 25 words
here's grammar it doesn't have to be structured like that in fact the more natural the language
we expose ourselves to the better our language is going to be and so we might actually get more
mileage out of watching vlogs or watching YouTube videos watching deaf as they're communicating or
you can even watch like interpreted content and so you're getting language as it is and less so out
of context and that is a really key aspect that can really help propel our progress forward very
quickly now the third aspect of how we can learn like a polyglot is making it fun so if we want to
be make language learning a success in the long run we have to do things that we enjoy because
human nature if we don't enjoy it we're not going to continue so it's really important that we find
a way to make language learning fun and so this is where things get really interesting and so first
of all we want to be exposing ourselves to content that we actually enjoy and again that could be
YouTube channels that could be vlogs that could be movies or tv shows maybe things
like switched at birth or maybe kids shows where they incorporate music and songs like by Rachel
Coleman in signing time or Rachel's treehouse and so there's lots of sign language content out
there that we can expose ourselves to that can be enjoyable and even going outside of that make it
fun within the household maybe challenge yourself or if you are living with a spouse
or with family or kids start creating games start challenging each other make it competitive
and recently i had one student where the husband wasn't really interested and
in learning sign language and but his wife was and so she was sharing with him all the things that
she was learning and so he ended up learning some science to kind of tease her and uh so
you know she learned the signs for animals and she learned bug and then her husband started teasing
her and said hey bug come here or little things like that but then they really started making it
enjoyable and um they made it fun and so maybe it's flash cards maybe it's games maybe it's
making things competitive or maybe it's just um us meeting other learners or connecting
with other deaf ones and getting involved in their local deaf communities and just making
that entire process enjoyable because if we don't it's not sustainable and so we really have to make
a learning sign language fun so that's going to lead us into our final point and how we can learn
like a polyglot and it's to be patient and this can be sometimes the hardest part of learning the
language because it takes so long and as much as we can do to speed up the entire language
learning process there's going to be a long period of time where we just can't communicate
what we want to say when we want to see it and we keep coming back to this analogy of a marathon
and many times we approach that marathon as a sprint and let's say we have a 26 mile uh marathon
and we just are so gung-ho and we are so excited we sprint that entire first mile
and then we're tired and then our feet hurt and we're thirsty and and we can barely breathe and
we still have 25 miles to go and now we're really discouraged it's not fun anymore and
you know what it's not worth it I'm going to give up so we have to be patient with ourselves and
every time we kind of cross another mile marker we're at mile marker one or a mile mark or two the
tendency is to think ah 24 more more miles a mile mark or three i still have 23 more miles to go
and it becomes a grind and that's what we want to avoid and going into it knowing that it's going
to be a marathon can really help us pace ourselves and come up with a daily process that is actually
sustainable and then we can flip the paradigm and now we're at mile marker one mile marker two mile
marker three and we look back and we're like wow I've already gotten three miles into this and that
entire mindset changes and now you're more excited and you're getting one step closer to the finish
line and so that's what we really want to do is we want to approach language learning as a marathon
we want to pause and consider how far we've come rather than how much farther we have to go
and just switching that paradigm can really can really make an impact as far as us wanting to
give up versus I'm going to persevere and I'm going to do this one more thing about being
patient is comparisons and this is something that we again it's just human nature we want
to compare ourselves to other people and so let's say we've been learning for a year
and somebody else has been learning for a year or maybe six months and and it seemingly feels like
they are more advanced than than you are that's discouraging right and so we have to avoid the
trap of comparing ourselves because really the second we compare ourselves to somebody else
it's going to be really no good can come from it right and even if you're the person that says oh
I've been at it a year and I'm much more I'm farther ahead than that other person that's
still a put down and it's still negative um so what we really need to do is compare
um ourselves to our previous selves and so that is always that should be the measure of your success
and we should never measure our success based off of somebody else whether it's time or signs or
they sign better they're clearer anything like that you know don't compare your progress
to anybody else's and just really a focus on how much farther you have become than you have
in the past and so that is going to help keep you encouraged and stay positive and continue
running that race and keeping up in that marathon and just to briefly review if we want to learn
like a polyglot and really be successful at learning a new language we want to immerse
ourselves in the language as much as possible and keep it appropriately challenging we don't want
it too easy and we don't want it too hard we need to have a plan and the plan that can really have
a daily implementation we'll have the best success thirdly we want to make the entire process fun
and enjoyable so that's going to make learning language learning much more sustainable
and the last one is be patient you just have to be patient with yourself and because this
is a marathon and it will take a lot of time and if you can apply even just one of those
things it can really make a difference as far as language learning for you in the long run.