Hello All and welcome to another video
My name is David Mansaray
and I'm here today with Luca Lampariello
in Madrid, capital of Spain.
Now Luca and I have been speaking a lot
about language learning and one of the topics that has come up is
the subject of Developing a Language Core
Now at the first every Polyglot conference in Budapest,
Luca gave a presentation about Developing a Language Core and why it is important
And I thought, that it would be great to share with all of you
some of the great information, that was shared at the conference and some of the things
that we have been speaking about during Luca's time here in Madrid with me
And so, Luca. How are you doing today?
I'm doing great!
Ok, so the first question I have for you is really simple, really basic, it is;
What is a Language Core? What is this exactly?
That's a difficult question. ha ha. Its not easy to answer in just a few words
but I would say that, to make a long story short
um, Language Core means to aquire the ability to assemble the pieces together
now, when we speak a foreign language when we speak our own language
as well as a foreign language we have the capacity
the automatic...we develop this.., uh, kind of automatic capacity of speaking
one word leads to the other, right? So, basically, buidling a Language Core means
to reach a level of automotism where we can, um, assemble words and
structures together in a comfortable way and from that point we can expand our knowledge
Ok, fantastic. So, a Language Core is, making sure that you have the,
sturcture and you know, the vocabulary or the essential vocabulary of a language
mastered or learned so that you can approach the language with ease,
Is that correct?
That's correct. When...some people believe that you have to have mastered
10,000 words in order to speak well and I don't believe that
you don't need that many words.
You need to know how to use words.
Obviously, you need words, because words are important
but if you develop the capacity of using words well, according to the circumstances
then you can expand your knowledge because it gives you motivation
if you see then in a certain circumstance to use these words and phrases
in sentences well, then people are impressed and they say, wow, you speak the language well
and you are more motivated to learn even more
And so, the first thing that you're going to want to focus on
when you take up the study of a new language is developing your langauge core.
and I think the why is pretty obvious
to have a base in the language that can then propell you forward
when it comes to speaking the language more fluently
so, the big question here is
How do we go about developing this Language Core?
And I know that Luca is writing a lot about this, in his book.
and so I know that it is a big topic it's a big part of the book
and we won't be able to go into all of the details, but
could you give us some practical tips and maybe
describe the process a bit of what it takes to
Develop a Language Core and what we need to do?
ummmmmm,
what I do is I use my own native tongue or a language I know very well
as a crutch to learn and figure out how the other language works
how the other language coveys pieces of information
so the very first thing that I do, from the very beginning is
to compare structures to see similarities and differences, this is quite important
Now, every language is different from one another.
Every language is obvioulsy another thing
so, basically I make sure that I have a method I really like, but it's also flexible
it changes according to the language I'm working on.
Now, in the case of, you know, when we were talking about building a language core,
what I do is, I try, as I said before, to understand how the langauge works,
and obviously you have to focus on the differences
So what I do, basically is I, I take, I start reading bilingual texts that have both my language or
my, or another language that I know well to so called crutch langauge,
in order to understand how the other language works.
Its not so much...people tend to think about translating and tend to
say that translation could get in the way... could be...could represent
a huge interference, but you have to consider the fact we have interference anyway.
We start from a...we always have a system ingrained in our brain, which is the system
of our native tongue, that influences the way we speak and the way we think.
And we can use that as an advantage and we have to try to avoid interference
Well, obviously interference cannot... its like noise in sounds,
there's always a background noise.
You cannot eliminate it, but you can minimize it.
So consider interference as a background noise and try to act... try to understand
how the language works by using something that is familiar
but, you have to use it, but not too much
so you have to find a compromise.
This compromise is a result of trial and error.
So, when you're comparing things and then your translating, for example I translate
but you don't necessisarily have to do that
You have to make sure that you don't use your native tongue too much,
otherwise it gets in the way.
Ok, and so the first tip is: you know, using your native langauge as a crutch
so that you can understand the differences and maybe some of the similarities as well
Translation is one way you can go about doing that but
its not necessairly what needs to be used
The core principle here is, noticing the differences between the languages,
using your own native langauge.
There are many creative ways that one could go about doing so.
Yeah, I just wanted to add that
..this...I wanted to say this because I do remember that,
a person sent me a message and said, look, I tried to...you know Assimil is great,
I tried to learn everything by heart, and then it didn't work
and I told them, well; learning things by heart is not exactly the best way to
learn langauges. There are...there's a dirth of possible methods that can suit you, but
learning things by heart...I don't believe that is a great way of dealing with languages
because, once again, we can say any number of sentences...
there are limit...the number of sentences that you can say are... is...
there are no limits. So, you have to learn how to build them,
not learning stock, fixed sentences that you can use and then when you...
and these sentences contain some words, and then when it comes to using these
words in a different context, you're at a loss for words, because you didn't develop
that capacity.
So it sounds like what you're saying is that
developing a Langauge Core is going to give you the base so you have the flexibility
to use the language as you would like and not be stuck with a particular
structure that you're used to using. Is that correct?
That's absolutely correct.
It's a way of working that abides by the so called, neural plasticilty principle,
our brain is, you know, beautifully complex and it changes all the time
so we have to learn how to use it best, in the best way to use it.
Fantastic! And, so you've given us 1 tip for developing the language core
now I'm going to be a bit greedy and ask for another one.
And so the first is making sure that you use your native language as a crutch
Can you give us maybe 1 more tip, for, to answer the question of
'How we can go about developing this Language Core?'
Well, let's say that first, as I said before try to aquire grammar,
this is another thing, we're delving into it, is look at rules, but our brain works as a,
neural network, you know there are some algorithims that were developed..
people...researchers and scientists were inspired by how the brain works
and they try to find...to build these algorithims, and I think that
if you try to study consistently, this is one of the ways to develop
a language core, you have to study consistently every day.
and it's extremely important.
Not learning things by heart and also remember to focus on sounds,
sound and meaning. So the language core is not just
grammar or patterns, it's also sound patterns.
So you have to try to develop things at the same time.
When we were talking about the reading, listening, speaking and writing,
these are 4 abilities, we take for granted, that everybody can do that,
so we think, oh if you can do 1, you can also do the other, thats not true.
So, one other piece of advice that I feel like giving is,
try to develop these capacities at the same time.
Some...you're going to develop pretty quickly, like listening and understanding
Some others like speaking takes more time but try to develop...
try to use...try to study a little bit and learn a little bit at the same time
all these...try to develop these 4 abilities at the same time.
Otherwise, its going to create a huge gap between your capacity of
speaking and your capacity of understanding and that can be a little bit frustrating.
Fantasitic! So, just to sum up everything that we've spoken about today
a Language Core is very important for making sure that you develop the flexibility
that is needed for achieving 'fluency' in a foreign langauge.
Reasons why a language core is important are pretty clear
if you want to take off with your foreign language study
and how can we go about doing that?
2 tips shared today:
Number 1; Use your native tongue as a crutch to help you notice
the differences and similarities between you native tongue and the
language that you are trying to learn.
And make sure that you are consistent with your study and that you make sure
that you spread your study evenly among the different skills that
are involved in communication, namely writing, speaking, listening and....
I don't remember :)
And reading!! Yeah. That's it.
So, this is a big topic and there is a lot that we could talk about, so
if you could leave a comment below, letting us know what questions you
may have and perhaps, hopefully we can, you know, answer some
of your questions, either some in the comments or we'll make another video!
So, we look forward to hearning from you.
My name is David Mansaray and you are?
And I'm here with Luca Lampariello in Madrid and we look forward to
seeing you in another video. Thank you for watching!! Bye!