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TableofContents

ForewordPaulPimsleur’sLife&CareerForewordtotheFirstEditionThe“Whys”ofLanguageLearning1.EveryoneCanLearnAnotherLanguage2.WhenIsaLanguageEasytoLearn?3.HowLongDoesItTaketoLearnaLanguage?4.WhichLanguageShouldYouSelect?5.Learningthe“TricksoftheTrade”6.OrganicLearning7.TheWordsandtheMusic

The“Hows”ofLanguageLearning8.HowtoPracticePronunciation9.HowtoMasterGrammar

10.HowtoLearnVocabularyConclusion11.BeyondtheSpokenWordAnswerKeyforQuizon“Guessable”FrenchWordsAppendix1:LanguagesoftheWorldAppendix2:PublishedPimsleurLanguagePrograms

EnglishasaSecondLanguageProgramsAboutPaulPimsleur

ForJean

Foreword

Forme,thisistheperfectbookonlearninganewlanguage.Itisallthethingsmostlanguagelearningtoolsarenot.It’sdirect,fullofusefulpearls

ofwisdomthatareeasilyincorporatedintoone’sday-to-daystudyofanewlanguage.It’sclearandwellwritten,andnowheredoes“academic-speak”sneakintothetext.

Paul Pimsleur’s theories, as expressed in How to Learn a Foreign Language, aredeceptivelysimple.Inhisownteaching,Dr.Pimsleursawstudentsrepeatedlyfailingandbeingturnedoffofwhattohimwasthemostexcitingchallengeintheworld:learninganewlanguage.

Thisbook speaksequally to thedifferentkindsofwould-be language learners—fromthosewho thought themselves scarred for life by high school Spanish hell to themoreconfident learnerswhowant toapproach the full rangeofdifferent languages.You’llbesurprisedattheForeignServiceInstitute’s(FSI’s)groupingof“easy”to“hard”languages:whatlanguagerankswhereisn’tentirelyobvious.

PaulPimsleurwasverydirectinhisadviceonwhattolookforinateacher:whentheclassroomexperience isnot going tohelp you learn andwhen it is,when you’rewithinyourrightstoobjecttoyourtimebeingwastedbymethodsthataren’tgoingtoteachyouanything.

AlotofwhatI’vecometoknowasthePimsleurMethodisdevelopedfromthegroundupinthisbook.

AsPimsleurwalksyoustep-by-stepthroughhisstraightforwardadviceonhowtolearnalanguage,sohesetsouttheprinciplesofthePimsleurMethod,answeringmanyofthequestionsI’vehadaboutthereasoningbehindtheprogram.Bytheendofthisshortbook,you’vegottenthebenefitofhisyearsofexperienceandtheresultsofhisresearchthatledtodefiningthebehaviorsproventoresultinyourlearninganewlanguagemoreeasily.

I’m also lucky to be in frequent contact with Dr. Pimsleur’s wife, Beverly, and hisdaughter, Julia, both of whom cheer us on in spreading the word about Pimsleur. Asimportantly, they each keep Paul Pimsleur from becoming a lifeless statue, constantlyprovidinginsightsandanecdotesaboutPimsleurthatenableustothinkofhimaspresentinourdailybusiness.

Ithasbeensomethirty-sevenyearssincePaulPimsleurdiedofaheartattackwhilehewasteachingattheSorbonneinParis.Hiswife,BeverlyPimsleur,broughtthemanuscriptofthisbooktoCharlesHeinle,theoriginalpublisher,andhepublisheditin1980.Itwas

Charles’s wife, Beverly Heinle, Pimsleur Language Programs editor-in-chief, whosuggestedwerepublishitaspartofourfiftiethanniversarycelebrationin2013.

The statistics and other referencematerials aremore than thirty years old, but theyremain directionally correct—the underlying point would be the same if they were alltranslatedto2013values.

IonlywishthiseditioncouldreflectwhatDr.Pimsleurwouldhavedonewithallofthenew technology that has emerged in the ensuing thirty years. He was always in theforefront:inthe1960shewasresponsiblefordevelopingthefirstcomputerizedlanguagelaboratoryatOhioStateUniversity,wherehesetupaventurewithOhioBellTelephoneCompany that enabled students to learn at their own pace, dialing in directly to hearpreprogrammed tapes. I can’t help but think he’d admire the revolutionary CourseManagerAppwe’vedeveloped.

TocelebratethefiftiethanniversaryofthePimsleurprograms,wearerepublishingPaulPimsleur’soriginalHowtoLearnaForeignLanguage.Itisastonishinghowithasstoodthetestoftime.

The mechanical delivery systems have changed: for cassettes, records, and taperecorders,youcannowreadinCDsanddownloads.ThepoliticalalignmentsinAppendix1, “Languages of theWorld,” have changed, but the languages remain.Thenumber ofspeakerslistedinTable2,“TheTwelveMostWidelySpokenLanguages,”hasincreased,and the ranking order of the languages fluctuates, but they are still the most widelyspoken.

Andall the restholds true:Paul’swisdom is as valuable todayas itwaswhen itwasoriginallypublished.

RobertParisRigerPimsleurLanguagePrograms

PaulPimsleur’sLifeandCareer

Paul Pimsleur (October 17, 1927–June 22, 1976) was a scholar in the field of appliedlinguistics.He developed thePimsleur language learning system,which, alongwith hismanypublications,hadasignificanteffectontheoriesoflanguagelearningandteaching.

Paul Pimsleur was born in New York City and grew up in the Bronx. His father,SolomonPimsleur,wasfromFranceandacomposerofmusic;hisAmerican-bornmotherwasalibrarianatColumbiaUniversity.

Dr.Pimsleurearnedabachelor’sdegreeattheCityCollegeofNewYork;hereceivedamaster’s degree in psychological statistics and a Ph.D. in French, both fromColumbiaUniversity.

He first taughtFrenchphoneticsandphonemicsat theUniversityofCalifornia,LosAngeles. After leaving UCLA, Pimsleur went on to a faculty position at Ohio StateUniversity, where he taught French and foreign language education. At the time, theforeignlanguageeducationprogramatOSUwasthemajordoctoralprograminthefieldin theUnitedStates.While there,hecreatedanddirected theListeningCenter,oneofthe largest language laboratories in the United States. The center was developed inconjunction with Ohio Bell Telephone and allowed self-paced language study using aseriesofautomatedtapesandpromptsthatweredeliveredoverthetelephone.

Dr.Pimsleur, alongwith anumberof renowned linguists and experts in the field oflanguage teaching, was called toWashington, D.C., in 1962 for a discussion on whatcould be done to improve foreign-language teaching in the United States. Math andsciencewere not the only areas that had been foundwantingwhen theU.S. educationsystemwasexaminedinthewakeofSputnikandtheSovietswinningtheracetospace.

Dr.Pimsleurproposedcreatingaself-studyaudiolanguageprogrambasedonhisownclassroommethodologyandhisexperiencewithstudentsattheListeningCenter.Inordertobeabletojudgetheeffectivenessofhisapproach,hewasaskedtochoosealanguagenotfamiliar to most English speakers. He chose Greek, which also had the advantage ofaddeddifficultybecauseofanon-Latinalphabet.

Pimsleur and his wife, Beverly (who served as his researcher as he produced andrecorded the course),went toGreece inMarch 1962.They returned inAugust of thatyear,andthefirstPimsleurcourse,Speak&ReadEssentialGreek:ATapewayProgram,wasself-published in March 1963. The subsequent languages undertaken by Dr. PimsleurwereFrench(1964),Spanish(1966),German(1967),andTwi(1971).

Later, Pimsleur was a professor of education and romance languages at the StateUniversityofNewYork inAlbany,wherehehelddualprofessorships in education andFrench.Hewas a Fulbright lecturer at theRuprechtKarlsUniversity ofHeidelberg in1968 and 1969 and a foundingmember of the AmericanCouncil on the Teaching ofForeignLanguages (ACTFL).Hedid researchon thepsychologyof language learning,and in 1969 was the section head of psychology of second languages learning at theInternationalCongressofAppliedLinguistics.

Hisresearchfocusedonunderstandingthelanguageacquisitionprocess,especiallythelearningprocessofchildren,whospeakalanguagewithoutknowingitsformalstructure.TheresultofthisresearchwasthePimsleurlanguagelearningsystem.

Throughthisresearch,he identifiedthreefactors thatcouldbemeasuredtocalculatelanguageaptitude:verbalintelligence,auditoryability,andmotivation.Hewasoneofthefirst foreign language educators to show an interest in students who have difficulty inlearningaforeignlanguagewhiledoingwellinothersubjects.

AfterDr.Pimsleur’s death, theACTFL-MLJPaulPimsleurAward forResearch inForeignLanguageEducationwascreatedandisawardedannually.

ForewordtotheFirstEdition

Themanuscript of this little book about foreign languages and how to learn themwasplacedinmyhandsbyPaulPimsleur’swidow,BeverlyPimsleur,somethreeyearsafterherhusband’suntimelydeathinParis,wherehewasteachingattheSorbonne.

ShetoldmehowverymuchPaulhadwantedtoseethisbookpublishedandthatshethought language students everywhere should have the opportunity to benefit from hisinsightsandexperiencesasamasterteacher.Thepagesofthisbookcontaintheessentialadvicethatwasattheverycoreofhisowneffectivelanguageteaching.

Sometimelater,afterIhadreadtheworkand,Imustconfess,withgreatdelightoverboththecontentandthesparklingstyle,IcalledBeverlyandtoldherthatwewantedtopublish it for two reasons: first, because thememory of her husband deserved this as afitting tribute to his outstanding contributions to the field of language pedagogy; andsecond, because not to make it available would be a considerable loss to all languagestudents,especiallyintheUnitedStates,wherethestudyofforeignlanguagesneedstobeencouragedanddevelopedsothatNorthAmericanscaneventuallytaketheirplaceontheglobeascitizensoftheworld!

This is clearly theplace tomention thedreamofPaulPimsleur, tocreatea seriesofcoursesthatwouldmakeeasilyaccessiblethemajor languagesof theworld tohis fellowAmericans in a way that would facilitate the removal of that black spot “the uglyAmericans”fromthelexiconofourneighborsonthisever-smallerglobe.

Infact,PaulPimsleuraccomplishedalargepartofhisdreamwiththecreationofhisSpeakandReadEssentialSeries,cassettecoursesforFrench,Spanish,German,Greek,andonefortheAfricanlanguageTwi.Thesecassettecoursesareprobablythemosteffectivetributethatcouldbemadetothememoryofthisgreatlanguageteacher,whosevoicestillsoundsclearandvitalas it speaks throughthe tapes toprovide instruction, information,and encouragement to the uncounted numbers of everyday and not-so-everydayAmericans who make the effort to expand their horizons and enjoy the culture andcivilizationofothercountries.

AlthoughHow to Learn a Foreign Language is the posthumous publication of PaulPimsleur,hisdream, as exemplified in theSpeak andReadEssential Series, remains verymuchaliveand,Ibelieve,willcontinuetoprovideeffectivelanguageinstructionforyearsto come.The voice of themaster teacher still resonates and sparkles on the tape as heteachestoallwhocomeandlisten.

Thispublication, then, is for the language studentsof theworld, inmemoryofPaulPimsleur.Longmayhisvoicebeheard!

CharlesA.S.Heinle,PresidentHeinle&HeinlePublishers,Inc.

The“Whys”ofLanguageLearning

A few years ago a prominent physician, head of neurophysiology at a medical school,struckupaconversationwithmeataparty.Whenhediscovered that Iwasa languageteacher,hegreweager to relate tomehisbadexperiencewith languages in school.Histoneofvoicemadeitplainthathehadalong-standingnegativerecollectionandwantedtogetitoffhismind.

“Frenchwasdestroyedforme,”hesaid,“bymyjuniorhighschoolteacher...whowasactuallyagymteachersubstitutinginFrench.”Heexplainedthattheteacherhadaverypooraccent.Hefoundthisoutwhenhisparentshelpedhimwithhishomeworkoneday.They taught him to pronounce certain words that his teacher had completelymispronounced.Fromthenon,hewasobligedtomispronouncethemdeliberatelyinclass,toavoidoffendingtheteacher.

ThephysicianwentontoCornellUniversity.Therehe learnedRussian,mastering itwellenoughtotakeadvancedcourseswhereonlyRussianwasspoken.ButevenhissuccesswithRussianwasnotenoughtooffsethisbeliefthathewaspooratFrench—incapableoflearningalanguagethatheknewtobeeasierthanRussian.

This sort of incident is not a rarity. Especially in well-to-do neighborhoods wherefamilies go abroad, many children pronounce the foreign language better than theirteachers,andencounterdifficultiesintheirclasseswhentheymightbeenjoyingaspecialsenseofmastery.

Thisbookisaboutforeignlanguagesandhowtolearnthem.However,asinthecaseofthe aggrieved physician, so many people come to this subject traumatized by badexperiences in school that somecommonmisconceptionsmustbe laid to restbeforewecanevenapproachwhatformanypeopleisa“loaded”topic.

The following statistics indicate the extent of harm done in high school languageclasses.Ofallstudentswhotakealanguageinhighschool,halfdropitafteronlyoneyear.By the endof two years, nine out of tenhave givenup language study entirely.A verysmall percentage of U.S. high school students actually learn a foreign language wellenoughtoreaditcomfortablyortospeakitwithanyfluency.Mostoftherestcomeawayconvincedthattheycannotlearnaforeignlanguage.

People inmany parts of theworld speak several languages as amatter of course. InAfrica,thereareplaceswherepracticallyeveryonespeaksfourorfivelanguagesdaily.

How a person does with languages in grade or high school provides virtually noindicationofhowhemightfaretryingtolearnthemasanadult.Butonemustovercomepowerfulmisgivings inmanycases.Howdoesonedothis?Andhowdoesonemasteralanguage? Why would one want to learn a language? How long should it take? Howshouldonegoaboutit?Thesearetheprimequestionstowhichthisbookaddressesitself.

1.EveryoneCanLearnAnotherLanguage

IntelligenceAccording to reliable studies, only about 16 percent ofwhat it takes to learn a foreignlanguageisattributabletointelligence—atleastasdefinedbyIQtests.IQtestsarelargelymade up of English vocabulary and mathematical reasoning questions, presented invariousforms.PerhapsthisexplainswhyIQcorrelatesbetterwithsuccessinschoolthanwithsuccessinlife.Doingwellinlanguages,likedoingwellatbusiness,politics,orlove,callsformorethanthetypeofintelligencethatmakesyousuccessfulinschool.Itdemandsqualitieslikepersuasiveness,sensitivity,gaiety,andperseverance,whichIQtestsmakenoattempttomeasure.MusicalAbilityStudyafterstudyhaveshownthat,contrarytopopularbelief,musicalabilityaccountsforonly about 10 percent of what it takes to learn a language.While we can all think ofpeople we have known who play the piano brilliantly and also learn foreign languageseasily, a few moments’ reflection will probably call to mind nearly as many oppositeinstances—people who are musical whizzes but know no foreign languages. Therelationshipbetweenthetwoisfartooslighttopredictwithanycertaintythatamusicallyaptpersonwilldobetteratlearningalanguagethansomeonewithapoorearformusic.LanguageTalentandYouOneofthemainreasonswhypeopledespairofstudyingalanguageisthatit“makesthemfeelstupid.”Totheworld,one isacompetentadult,but toa languageteacheronemaysoundlikeababblingbaby,forcedtostammerouteventhesimplestideas.Atleastthisishowagreatnumberofadultstudentsreporthavingfelt.

Incontrastwithdailylife,wherewecanusuallyavoidsituationsthatembarrassus,inthe classroomwe are helpless in front of a teacher who can, by an ill-timed question,exposeourignorance.Aludicrousaccentorablatantmistakeingrammarmightidentifyusasincompetent.

Whentheyfailtorecognizethis,teachersmaymisusetheirpower.Theclassroom,asanyonewhohastaughtwillverify,isaloadedgame.Theteacherismorethanmerelyoneoftheplayers:he laysdowntherulesandalsoactsasthesolereferee.Forinstance, it iswithinhispowertohumiliateastudentforforgettingvocabularywords,whenactuallyhehimselfmaybetoblamefornotprovidingsufficientpractice.Tooeasily,whentheteacherbecomesunreasonableinhisdemands,thestudentfeelsincompetent.Hedecidesthatthefaultiswithhisownabilityandgivesup.

Still,youmaysay,theremustbesomepeoplewithsolittletalentforforeignlanguagesthattheywouldbewelladvisednottowastetimetryingtolearnone.Perhapsthisisso,butIforonedonotbelieveit,andinanyevent it isextremelyhardtotell in individualcases.

A youngman in a French class I was teaching at UCLAwas doing poorly and indangeroffailingthecourse.Isenthimtoagoodtutor,withwhosehelphemanagedtoscrapethrough.Iguessthat,ifIhadreflected,Iwouldhaveconsideredhimanexampleofsomeonewithnotalentforlanguages.

IhappenedtorunintotheyoungmanagainayearorsolateronastreetinAthens.Hehad been living there for two months with a Greek family, and had already learnedenoughGreektoholddownajob.Whenwesatdownatasidewalkcafétochat,hehadthesatisfactionoforderingforbothofus,influentGreek.HehadlearnedGreekbutnotFrench.Thetalentwasinhim,thoughhehimselfmightnothavebelievedit.

Ihaveseenotherincorrigiblecases,liketheArmysergeantwhowassentbacktoschoolat age fifty to learnCambodian.Hedidmiserably and soondecided to retire from theArmyratherthanstayinthelanguageschool.Thiswastoobad.Thesergeant,likemanysupposed “no language talent” people, was probably as capable as most of learning alanguage if the circumstances had been right. If he had parachuted into a Cambodianvillage,hemighthavelearnedthelanguageveryquickly.

Discouragement, frustration, and fatigue produce a tremendous impulse to give upbefore one gets far enough for competence to bring its own reward. The best defenseagainstthisistoknowbeforestartingexactlywhatyouwanttoaccomplishandwhy.WhyLearnaForeignLanguage?Ittakesconsiderableefforttolearnaforeignlanguage,toomuchforpeoplewhovaguelyhope to get a better job using such knowledge. English has become the worldwidelanguageofbusiness,andinfirmswhereknowingaforeignlanguageisajobrequirement,mostfinditsimplertoemployaforeignpersonthantotrainanAmericanemployee.

Manypeoplewanttolearnaforeignlanguageforreasonsthatarenolessrealforbeing“impractical.”Suchreasonsareoftendeeplypersonal.

WhenIwasinmyearlytwenties,ItookupRussian.ItoldmyfriendsitwasbecauseRussianwasbecomingan importantworld language.However,my true reason,whichIrecognizedlater,wasthatIhadhopedtofind,inthelanguageofmySlavicgrandparents,acluetomyownoccasionalpessimism.

Similarly,coursesinGreek,inJapanese,andinAfricanlanguagesareattendedbymanypeopleseekingadeeperawarenessofthemselvesandhopingtofinditinthelanguageoftheirancestors.

Somepeopleareinterestedinlearningaforeignlanguagesimplybecausetheycannotconsiderthemselvesaseducatedwithoutit.Suchapersonmightexplainthatmotivationbysaying,“Itmakesmefeellikeawholeperson,acitizenoftheworld.”

Ithinkthebestanswerto“Whylearnaforeignlanguage?”isthatitmaymakeone’slifericher.Not only after one knows it, but even during the learning.That languages taketimetolearnbecomesaplusinsteadofadrawbackwhenoneconsidershowsuchalong-range commitment gives focus and continuity to a period of one’s life. Viewed as adecisiontofillastretchoftimewithstimulating,purposefulactivity, theundertakingoflearninga foreign languagecanbeadelightfulvoyagefullofnewexpressionsand ideas.Oneisgladtogoslowlyandsavorthetrip,especiallywhentherearenojudgestosatisfyotherthanoneself.

2.WhenIsaLanguageEasytoLearn?

Contrary to what most people believe, pronunciation is not the hardest feature of alanguagetomaster.Norisgrammar.

A language—any language—has three distinct components: pronunciation, grammar,andvocabulary.Acloser lookat these componentswill reveal that the third is themostdifficulttomaster.PronunciationHumanbeingsarelimitedinthespeechsoundstheycanproduce.Foronething,allofushave the same vocal apparatus—tongue, lips, vocal cords, and so on—whichwe use inroughlysimilarways.

Then, too, sounds must remain distinct from one another; if there were toomany,listenersmighthavetroubledistinguishingthem.Linguiststellusthatnoknownlanguageis composed of fewer sounds than Hawaiian, which has fifteen, or more than certainlanguages of the Caucasus, which have up to sixty. Most languages fall somewherebetweenthesetwoextremes;EnglishandFrench,forexample,havethirty-onesounds.

Fortunately for the learner, in most languages fewer than half a dozen sounds aredifficult to imitate. And within the first few weeks of study, this number typicallydwindlestooneortwo.

Oneshouldalwaysstrivetoachieveanative-likeaccent;thisispartoftheambitiontolearnthelanguagewell.Butwemustconcedethatapersoncanthriveinaforeigncountry,conversefreely,andevenconductbusinessthoughhisaccentmaybefarfromperfect.

Relativelyspeaking,pronunciationposes lessofa learningchallengethangrammarorvocabulary.GrammarPeoplewhohavelearnedseveralforeignlanguagesreportthatlearninggrammarbecomeseasier afterhavingmastered the first two languages.Throughknowing three languages,they discover that there are simple unifying principles underlying grammar’s apparentcomplexity.

Languages exist so thathumanbeings cancommunicate experience.Sinceallhumanbeings share a commonphysiology and commonbasicneeds, it is littlewonder that alllanguageshavecertainfeaturesincommon.Englishconveystheideaofgoingintoaroombythosethreewords,inthatfixedorder;Finnishconveysthesameideabyasuffix,asif

oneweretosay“roominto.”Thepointisthatbothlanguageshaveawayofconveyingthe“into”idea.

Similarly,alllanguageshavedevicesforconveyingwhetheranactionispresentlygoingon(sheisdancing)orisfinished(shedanced);forrelatingpeopleandthingstoeachother(Jack’swife;ourcar);forreplacinganoun(thewoman)byapronoun(she).

Anthropologists working in the remotest corners of theworld have been amazed todiscover that all people, however “primitive” they may appear from our point of view,possessalanguagewhosegrammarissystematic,internallyconsistent,andwelladaptedtotheirlifeneeds.Thereisnosuchthingasaprimitivegrammar.

Anexperiencedlanguagelearnerisonewhoknowsapproximatelywhattoexpectwhenheconfrontsthegrammarofanewlanguage.Heknowsthathewillencounterbothgoodandbadsurprises.IfhedecidestostudyFinnish,forexample,hewillbedelightedtofindithasaverysimplenumbersystem.(AfriendofmineoncelearnedtheFinnishnumbersfromzerotoinfinityduringatwo-hourflighttoHelsinki.)Hewillbedismayedtofindithasaformidablevarietyofword-endings.Buthavinglearnedotherlanguages,hewillbepsychologicallyreadybothtoenjoylearningthenumbersandtostrugglewiththeword-endings.Hehasseenthissortofthingbeforeandknowsitcanbemastered.

In learning grammar,we are buoyed up inmoments of discouragement by knowingthatthetaskislimited.Ifyoutakeanylanguagetextbookandaddupthespaceoccupiedbyrulesofgrammar(distinctfromexercises,readings,andothercontent),youwillfinditsurprisinglycompact.Thebasicgrammarofa languagecangenerallybeexplained,withcopiousexamples,infewerthanonehundredpages.

Thisisnottosuggestthatthewaytolearngrammaristomemorizethoseonehundredpages.Somepeopledogoaboutswallowinggrammarwholethatway,butformostofusthere aremorepalatablemethods.Whatever themethod,however, one is bound tohitsomesnagsalongtheway.Theknowledgethat there isonlysomuchgrammar,andnomore, can help rekindle a person’s couragewhen a tough point of grammarmakes thelanguageseemimpossibletomaster.VocabularyWords,words,words.Ittakesaboutfifteenhundredofthemfora“basic”commandofalanguage and perhaps five thousand to be really fluent. This is a challenge to anyone’slearning ability, however gifted he may be. However, if a person can recognize someforeignwords fromhisown language,or froma third language thatheknows, the taskwillobviouslybemuchsimpler.

Asageneralrule,languagescloselyrelatedtoone’sownareeasiesttolearn,foronemayfindhelpfulsimilaritiesinpronunciation,oneislikelytofindthemingrammar,andoneisvirtuallysuretofindtheminvocabulary.

Asnative speakersofEnglish,Americans are in a favorableposition to learn foreignlanguages,forEnglishisrelatedtotwoimportantlanguagefamilies.Weenjoyaheadstartwhether we are learning a Romance language (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese,

Romanian, and Catalan) or aTeutonic language (German, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans,Norwegian,Danish,Swedish,andIcelandic).

EnglishisaTeutonic language.TheearlysettlersofEnglandwereGerman-speakingtribeswhosedialectgraduallydevelopedintoaseparate language.TheaffinitiesbetweenGermanandEnglisharestillquiteevidenttoday.

French and English, on the other hand, were never one language. The NormansconqueredEngland in1066andoccupied it for some twohundredyears,duringwhichtime the upper classes spoke only French, while the lower classes continued speakingEnglish.IntheyearsfollowingtheNormanconquest,abouttenthousandFrenchwordsenteredtheEnglishlanguage.Some75percentofthemarestillincommonuse.

An American can recognize many French words easily—and therefore learn themeasily.Thepointisworthdemonstrating,soIhavelistedonthefollowingpagefiftywordstakenatrandomfromaFrenchdictionary.Doingacolumnatatime,trytoguesstheirmeaning.Somearecompletelyobvious,others lessso.Writedownwhatyouthinkeachone means, then compare your answers with those given on page 101, giving yourselfcredit if you are even approximately correct. When you have done all five columns,calculateyourtotalscore.(IfyouknowFrench,youmaywanttoasksomeonetotrythiswhodoesnot.)

TheaverageAmericanwhoknowsnoFrenchcanguess fifteen to seventeenof thesewordscorrectly—about30percent.AnyonewhohaseverstudiedFrench,evenlongago,canprobablyrecognize40oreven50percent.

1 2 3 4 5

frère cours bonheur existence lendemain

jardin plan garde détail volonté

sentiment rôle valeur colère marche

scène malheur habitude salon madame

situation envie sang journal foule

arbre endroit couleur fleur garçon

impression roi sujet bouche geste

larme franc titre rapport société

goût champ soin foi salle

loi importance faute groupe joie

Score____ Score____ Score____ Score____ Score____

TotalScore_____

ApproximatelythesamedemonstrationcouldbemadeforSpanish,Italian,orGerman.ThepointisthatanAmericanlearninganyoftheselanguagesalready“knows”everythirdorfourthword,whichreducesthetaskoflearningvocabularyconsiderably.

Significantly,thisadvantageactuallygrowswithtime.Atfirstonemustlearnthelittlewordsthatgluethelanguagetogether(I,you;is,are;before,after);asarule,thesedonotresemble English. Later on, however, one focuses on “content” words—mainly nouns,verbs,andadjectives—andhasthepleasureofrecognizingmanyofthesequitereadily.WhichArethe“Easy”and“Hard”Languages?NoschoolinAmericaismoreexperiencedatteachingforeignlanguagestoadultsthantheForeignServiceInstituteoftheU.S.DepartmentofState.LocatedinArlington,Virginia,theFSIhasbeentrainingdiplomatsandothergovernmentpersonnelforserviceoverseasformorethantwenty-fiveyears.

Here is how the FSI rates the languages they teach, based on the difficulty theirstudents have had over the years inmastering them.Group 1 is “easiest,”Group 4 the“hardest.”

Group1 Group2 Group3 Group4

French Bulgarian Amharic Arabic

German Burmese Cambodian Chinese

Indonesian Greek Czech Japanese

Italian Hindi Finnish Korean

Portuguese Persian Hebrew

Romanian Urdu Hungarian

Spanish Lao

Swahili Polish

Russian

Serbo-Croatian

Thai

Turkish

Vietnamese

As expected, the languages closest to English are all on the “easy” list. Somewhatsurprisingly,however, twoother languagesarealsoon that list: Indonesian (Malay) andSwahili.ThoughunrelatedtoEnglish,theyhaveprovenfairlyeasyforAmericanstolearn,andanyreadercontemplatinga trip toanareawhereoneof these is spokenshouldnothesitatetostudythelanguagebeforehegoes.Heislikelytofinditnomoredifficultthan,

say, a language he took in high school, and knowing even a little of it will make anenormousdifferenceinhistrip.

3.HowLongDoesItTaketoLearnaLanguage?

Somepeoplewouldbeverygladiftheycouldsayevenafewphrasesinaforeignlanguagewithapassableaccent.Othersmainlywanttoreadgreatworksof literature.Stillothersmayaspiretospeakandwriteanotherlanguageasfluentlyastheirmothertongue.

Beforetravelabroadbecamecommon,foreignlanguageswereassociatedinthiscountrywitheducatedpeopleandimmigrants.Theformerwereoften interestedonly inreadingandwritingaparticular language,while the latter could speak theirnative languagebuthad little occasion to read or write it after coming to America. Some educated peopleresembled the upper-class British gentlemen of the nineteenth century who typically“knew”Frenchbutweredisinclinedtoimitatethe“peculiar”soundsaFrenchmanmakeswhenspeaking.

Intoday’sworld,manypeoplewhostudyaforeignlanguagechieflydesiretospeakit.Itisimportant,therefore,toestimatehowwellapersoncanexpecttospeakalanguageafterstudying it foracertainnumberofhours—andconversely,howmanyhours itmaytakehimtoreachthefluencyhehasinmind.Severalestimateswillfollowonhowlongittakestoachievevarioussortsofmastery,basedonFSIdataandmyownresearch.TheFSIRatingScaleManyU.S.governmentagenciesuse theFSIAbsoluteLanguageProficiencyRatings tomeasure a prospective employee’s ability to use a foreign language in his work. Onceemployed,heperiodicallyundergoesthesametypeofratingasabasisforpromotion.

Thepersontoberated is interviewedbyoneormore trainedtesters,whoarealwaysnativespeakers.Theyconversewithhimfortentotwentyminutes,probinghiscommandofpronunciation,grammar,andvocabulary.Thentheypooltheirjudgmentstoassignhimarating.Thelowestratingis1,thehighest5,andanyratingcanbemodifiedbyaplusorminus.

Eachratingdesignatesaparticulardegreeofmasteryofthelanguageforbusinessandsocialpurposes:

1.Elementaryproficiency.Thepersonisabletosatisfyroutinetravelneedsandminimumcourtesyrequirements.

2.Limitedworkingproficiency.Thepersonisabletosatisfyroutinesocialdemandsandlimitedworkrequirements.3.Minimumprofessional proficiency. The person can speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and

vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, andprofessionaltopics.

4.Fullprofessionalproficiency.Thepersonusesthelanguagefluentlyandaccuratelyonalllevelsnormallypertinenttoprofessionalneeds.

5.Native or bilingual proficiency.The person has speaking proficiency equivalent to that of an educated nativespeaker.

How long, onewonders, does it take a person to achieve theminimum1, and howmuchlongerafterthattoreacha2or3?

FSIresearchersstudiedtheperformanceofalltheirstudentsduringathree-yearperiod,notingtheratingstheyreceivedaftervariousperiodsoftraining.Table1showstheresultsforthe“easy”languages,andforthe“hard”languages.

Inreality,thesetimeestimatesarealittlelowerthantheyatfirstappear;holidaysandotherlosttimereducethembyabout10percent.Nevertheless,themeaningisclear.Ifyouare a language learner of average ability, and you undertake an “easy” language, it willprobablytakeyouabout220hourstogettothefirstlevelofmasteryinspeakingit,anddoublethattogettoLevel2.Ifyouareslowerthanaverageatlearninglanguages,allow50percentmoretime;iffaster,50percentless.Table1.LearningRatesfor“Easy”and“Hard”Languages

“Easy”Languages “Hard”Languages

RatingsofFSIstudentsspeakingaGroup1languageafterspecifiedperiodsoftraining.

RatingsofFSIstudentsspeakingGroup2-4languageafterspecifiedperiodsoftraining.

TrainingPeriod ProficiencyRating TrainingPeriod ProficiencyRating

8weeks(240hours) 1/1+ 12weeks(360hours) 1/1+

16weeks(480hours) 2 24weeks(720hours) 1+/2

24weeks(720hours) 2+ 44weeks(1320hours) 2/2+/3

These figures are based on a particular type of instruction: the FSI intensive coursewhereonestudiesalanguageforsixhoursaday,fivedaysaweek,inaclassofnomorethantenstudents,ledbyanexperiencedlinguistandwell-trainednativedrillmaster.Theschool is a language learningparadise, the students are highlymotivated, andoptimumresultsareachieved.Yettheseestimatesarereasonablyvalidforpeoplewho,likemostofus,havenochoicebuttoattendaconventionalcoursethatmeetsforty-fiveminutesadayoracoupleofeveningsaweek.

Humanattentionislimited.Noonecanabsorbknowledgesteadilyforsixhoursaday,weekafterweek;someofthetimeinintensivecoursesisnecessarily“wasted”inrelaxing,clearingone’smind,orplaindaydreaming.Moreover,thingsthatseemconfusingonedaysometimes clear up by the next, after they have settled into place in one’s mind. This“incubation”factorfavorsanon-intensivelearningschedule.Inshort,itisnotcertainthatpeoplewhospread their language learningovera longerperiodnecessarily requiremoretotalhoursthanthosewhoconcentrate.Theymayevenrequirefewer.

Theoverridingmessage is thatanyonecan learna foreign language,butsomepeoplearequickeratitthanothers.Still,languagelearningisaseriouscommitment,andifone’saimistospeakitcomfortably(say,2+ontheFSIscale),thisislikelytotaketheequivalentofsixmonthsoffull-timestudy.

However,fluencyinspeakingisnoteveryone’schiefobjective.Analternativeobjective,perhapslessdemanding,maycorrespondtoyourneedsanddesires.AlternativeGoalsNoteveryoneisinterestedinthetypesofobjectivessetbytheFSI.Somepeoplewanttospeak a language just well enough to get along in a foreign country; others may wantmainlytoread it.Moreover, the instructiontheaverageperson is likely tofindavailablewillprobablynotresemblethatattheFSI.Anothersetofestimatesmayberequiredfortheaverageperson,givenaverageinstruction.THE“COURTESYANDNECESSITY”SPEAKINGLEVEL.Youmaywanttospeakthe languagejustwellenoughtoexchangepolitenesseswithpeopleyoumeet,orderfoodanddrink,andaskforadoctorifyouneedone.Don’tundervalueeventhis;itisadegreeofmasterythatcantransformapersonfroman“uglyAmerican”intoonewhoisobviouslyattemptingtomeetothershalfway.Itiscertaintomakeanytripyoutakemorerewarding.

Evidencefrompeoplewhohaveusedmyprogrammedlanguagecoursesshowsthatthistypeofmasterycanbeachievedin lessthansixtyhours,whichcomestoonlyanhouradayfortwotothreemonths—anexcellentreturnforalimitedeffort.READINGONLY.Ifyousetoutlearningtoreadtheforeignlanguage,andforgotheefforttospeakorwriteit,thenin100to150hoursyouwillbeabletoreadmaterialrelatedtoyourlineofworkwithease.Thisamountstosixhoursperweekforfourtosixmonths—again,ausefulskillonecanacquireatamodestprice intime.However,youshouldnotexpectyour reading skill tohelpyou if you laterdecide to learn to speak.Speakingandreading are two very different activities, and though reading builds vocabulary, it mayactuallydamagepronunciation.BALANCED COMPETENCE. It is entirely possible, by taking a foreign language coursesequenceinacollege“extension”divisionorattheYMCA,tobecomeabletoreadwithease,understand thegistofwhatyouhear, andwrite a satisfactorybusinessorpersonalletter.Attherateofsixhoursperweek—threeofclassandthreeofhomework—apersonof averageaptitudecanacquire a fairmastery in twoyears’ time.He shouldnot expect,however,tobecompletelyfluentinspeaking,nortounderstandeverythinghehears.EDUCATED MASTERY. If your objective is to master the language fully in speech andwriting, then youmayhave todevote at least a year and ahalf,mostof it spent in theforeigncountry,toreachingthisobjective.Agoodplanwouldbetostudythelanguageforthreetosixmonthsathome,andthengototheforeigncountryforatleastayear,duringwhichtimeyoumustspeakonlytheforeignlanguage.Attheendofthistime,youwouldunderstandmostpeopleandeven televisionandmovies, readalmostanywrittenmatterwithoutadictionary,andperhapswritewithamodicumofstyle.Adultswhogoabroadtolive find that after severalmonthsof getting adjusted to speaking andunderstanding in

everydaysituations, theycanthenbegintopenetratethe languageandparticipate inthelifeofthecountry.

Somepeoplearedismayedbytimeestimatesthatruntohundredsofhours.Theyfeelthatthisismoretimethantheyarewillingtocommit.Theyshouldreflectonthefactthatoneyearfromtodaytheywillbeoneyearolderwhethertheyundertakethislearningtaskornot.Theonlyquestioniswhether,onthatday,theyaregoingtobewellalongtowardmasteringthe languagetheyhavedreamedofknowing,orwhether itwill stillbeonlyadream.

4.WhichLanguageShouldYouSelect?

WhenactressIngridBergman,whoknewfivelanguages,wasaskedwhichshepreferred,she replied: “English for acting, Italian for romance,French fordiplomacy,German forphilosophy...andSwedishforsecrecy,becausesofewpeopleknowit.”

Which languageshouldyou takeup?French soundspretty.ButMexico is closer.OrwouldItalianbeeasier?

Ifyouhaveverystrongmotivesforlearningsomeparticularlanguage,youmaywanttoskipthefollowingdiscussionofthehardandeasypointsofvariouslanguages,forastrongdesire to learn canoverride all other considerations.Any language is learnableprovidedyourwilltolearnitisstrongenoughtokeepyougoingwhentediumsetsin.

Ifyouarestillreading,youapparentlyhavenotyetfixedonachoice.Inalllikelihood,you are looking for a language to study thatwill be useful and agreeable for travel andsocial contacts, andperhaps forbusiness aswell.Thebestway tohelpyouchoose is todescribethemostpopularlanguagessoyouwillknowwhattoexpectifyouelecttostudyoneofthem.FrenchThe tough partmay be the pronunciation. French has fourteen vowel sounds, none ofthemquite the same as inEnglish, and an ill-fittingwriting systemwherewords don’tnecessarilylookthewaytheysound.

Vocabulary,ontheotherhand,iseasierinFrenchthaninanyotherlanguage,duetotheoverlapwithEnglish.

ThegrammarisalittlemoredifficultthaninSpanish,thoughnotnearlysodifficultasinGermanorRussian.

ThepayoffforlearningFrenchisgreat:arichliteraturetoread,endlesspossibilitiesforthetouristwhoknowsthelanguage,andworldwidesocialprestige.

Verdict:ifyouarereasonablygoodattellingdialectjokesandimitatingforeignaccents,thenFrenchpronunciationshouldholdnoterrorforyou.Butifyouhaveapoorear,orgetmixedup easily in spelling, or cannot tolerate “illogical” grammar, thenmaybe youhadbetterpickalanguagefartherdownthelist.GermanWithonlya fewsounds thataredifferent fromEnglish,German isaneasy languagetopronounce.Itisalsoeasyto“getalong”inGermanonthedamn-the-grammarbasis,for

the Germans are nice about trying to understand what you say, no matter how youmassacretheirlanguage.

Germanvocabularyseemshardatfirst,butbecomeseasierwhenyoureachtheplateauwhereword-roots begin to reappear. You soon find yourself able to correctly guess themeaningofwordsyouhaveneverseenorheardbefore.

The grammar of German is more difficult than that of the Romance languages—though less than that of Russian—so don’t expect to progress from “pidgin” to properGermanwithoutseriousstudy.

Verdict:ifyoudon’tmindlearninggrammaraslongisitisorderly,thenGermanmaybe for you. The effort of learning it is amply rewarded by the countries you can visit(SwitzerlandandAustriaaswellasGermany)andthemanybooks,plays,andoperasyoucanenjoywhenyouknowit.ItalianThe “language of love” is only moderately difficult. It has few troublesome sounds, aregular spelling system, and grammar of only average difficulty. The payoff is good,though only in one country, Italy, where you can enjoy art, opera, food, sunshine, andlivelypeople.

Verdict: if you are strongly attracted to Italian, go ahead and learn it; it is easier forAmericans thanmost other languages. Youmay have more trouble, though, finding agoodItaliancoursethanoneinFrench,Spanish,orGerman.SpanishThepronunciationofSpanishisalittleharderthanItalianorGerman,butnotsohardasthat of French. Spelling is very regular. Vocabulary is almost as easy to guess at as inFrench.Grammar ismade easier by the regularity of verbs.Thepayoff in business andcultural value is considerable, since Spanish is spoken by so many people in so manyplaces.

Verdict:ifyouwishtolearnalanguagethatcanbeusedinavarietyofcountriesinbothhemispheres,thentakeSpanishbecauseitisfairlyeasyandtherearemanywaystoputittouseasyouarelearning.RussianPeopleoftenarefrightenedoftheRussian(Cyrillic)alphabet,whichturnsoutinpracticeto be easy to master. However, other features of the language—one or two difficultsounds,elaborategrammarrules,andvocabularythatcannotbeguessedat—makeRussianharderforAmericansthanthe languagesmentionedsofar.Examineyourmotivebeforeyoubegin:isitstrongenoughtocarryyouthroughalongperiodofstudy?RememberalsothatyoucannotexpecttospendagreatdealoftimeasatouristintheSovietUnion,andthatRussianisnotwidelyspokeninareaswhereAmericansmayreside.

Verdict:Russianisdifficultbutrewarding,providedyouhaveacompellingpurposeforlearningit.

OtherLanguagesThese five languages—French,German, Italian, Spanish, andRussian—account for 95percentofall foreignlanguageinstructionintheUnitedStates . . .whichmerelyprovesthatourviewoftheworldis lopsidedandbadlyoutofdate.WefavorafewprestigiousEuropeanlanguagesbutignorelanguageslikeJapanese,Arabic,andHindithatarespokenbytensorevenhundredsofmillionsofpeoplewhoboastculturalheritagesthatrivalthoseofanyEuropeancountry.

Thereareestimatedtobesomethreethousandtofivethousandlanguagesintheworld.The top twelve (seeTable2 on the followingpage) comprise 65percent of theworld’spopulation. However, there are over a hundred other languages spoken by at least amillionpeopleapiece.Thepathofrealadventureforyoumaylieinstudyingalanguageoutsidethecommonfive.Ifyouareopentoanundertakingthatcouldchangeyourlife,then pick an area of theworld that fascinates you and commit yourself to studying itspolitics, its economics, its history, its people, and at least one of its languages. Browseamong the languages listed by geographic region in the appendix to this book entitled“LanguagesoftheWorld.”Seewhicharespokeninapartoftheworldthatattractsyou.Then reflect on the business opportunities, the leisure-time activities, the retirementpossibilities,oreventhenewcareerthatyoumightfindincommittingyourselftoaplanof“languageandarea”studies.Table2.TheTwelveMostWidelySpokenLanguages*

Language No.ofUsers(inMillions)*

1.MandarinChinese 820

2.English 450†

3.Russian 270

4.Spanish 260

5.Hindi‡ 165

6.Arabic 160

7.Portuguese 132

8.Bengali 130

9.German 120

10.Japanese 115

11.Indonesian-Malay 85

12.French 82

*Asof1980.Allfigureshavetoberatherroughestimates,sincetherearenogenerallyreliablesourcesforsuchstatistics.† Conrad and Fishman in The Spread of English (1977, p. 6) estimate 600 million; this must extend to a ratherrudimentaryabilitytousethe language.(InJ.A.Fishman,R.L.Cooper,andA.W.Conrad,Rowley,Mass.:NewburyHouse,1977.)

‡As spokenbyordinaryvillagers,HindiandUrduarenearly indistinguishable.Themore formal the style, themoretheydiverge,becauseofPersianinfluenceonUrduandSanskritinfluenceonHindi.Thewritingsystemsforthetwoaretotallydifferent.ThecombinedtotalforHindi-Urduisatleast217million.

5.Learningthe“TricksoftheTrade”

TheBurtonStorySir Richard Burton—not the actor but the great nineteenth century British adventurerwho penetrated the forbidden sacred cities of Islam, discovered Lake Tanganyika,explored theAmazon, and shockedVictorianEnglandwith his detailed reports on sexpracticesindistantlands—thatRichardBurtonwasalsooneofthegreat linguistsofhistime.AdistinguishedtranslatorfromHindi,Portuguese,Arabic(TheArabianNights)andseveral other languages, he was said to be able to pass for a native in twenty-ninelanguages,andtohavedevelopedatechniqueforlearninganewlanguageintwomonths’time.Burtondescribedthistechniqueinhismemoirs:

Igotasimplegrammarandvocabulary,markedouttheformsandwordsthatIknewwereabsolutelynecessary,andlearntthembyheartbycarryingtheminmypocketandlookingoverthematsparemomentsduringtheday.Ineverworkedformorethanaquarterofanhouratatime,forafterthatthebrainlostitsfreshness.Afterlearningsomethreehundredwords,easilydoneinaweek,Istumbledthroughsomeeasyworkbook(oneoftheGospelsisthemostcome-atable),andunderlinedeverywordthatIwishedtorecollect,inordertoreadovermypencillingsat leastonceaday.Having finishedmyvolume, I thencarefullyworkedup thegrammarminutiae, and I thenchosesomeotherbookwhosesubjectmostinterestedme.Theneckofthelanguagewasnowbroken,andprogresswasrapid.IfIcameacrossanewsoundliketheArabicGhayn,Itrainedmytonguetoitbyrepeatingitsomanythousandtimesaday.WhenIread,Iinvariablyreadoutloud,sothattheearmightaidmemory.Iwasdelightedwith themostdifficult characters,Chinese andCuneiform,because I felt that they impressed themselvesmorestronglyupontheeyethantheeternalRomanletters....WheneverIconversedwithanybodyinalanguagethatIwas learning, I took the trouble to repeat their words inaudibly after them, and so to learn the trick ofpronunciationandemphasis.

Burton’s readiness to admit his stumbling and his short attention span brings himclosertousandmakesuswanttosortoutwhatisillusoryandwhatisrealintheBurtonlegend.PassingforaNativeinTwenty-nineLanguagesDon’tbemisledbyreputations.PerhapsBurtonwasanuttermasterofallofhistwenty-nine languages. But reputations are often overdone. I myself have a reputation forknowingagreatnumberoflanguages,manymorethanIactuallyknow.

Once,whenaclasshadbeenpesteringmetotellthemhowmanylanguagesIknew,IwalkedovertoaSwedishexchangestudentintheclassandheldthisconversationwithherinSwedish.

I: AreyouSwedish?

She: Yes,Iam.

I: WhatpartofSwedenareyoufrom?

She: I’mfromLinköping.

I: Idon’tknowit,whereisit?

She: (longansweraboutthelocationofthetown)

I: HowlonghaveyoubeeninAmerica?

She: Since...(two-sentenceanswer)

I: Thankyouverymuch.Good-bye.

Ourconversationlastedforaboutthreeminutes.ThenIaskedherinEnglishwhethershehad readilyunderstoodmySwedish; she said shehad. I asked the classwhether, intheir judgment, Iwas entitled to claim that I knewSwedish.They repliedwarmly thatsurelyIcouldaddSwedishtomylistoflanguages...andweredisappointedwhenItoldthemthatIhardlyknewSwedishatallandwouldconsidermyselffraudulenttomaintainthatIdid.

My part in the conversation consisted merely of a few stock phrases, and somequestionstokeeptheotherpersontalking.Actually,myquestionsborenorelationtoheranswers,becauseIdidnotunderstandher.Iwaspreparedtoaskthesamesetofquestionsregardlessofwhatshesaid.

TheamountofSwedishIusedinthat“conversation”canbetaughttoanyoneatallinanhour.

Burton himself was well aware of the difference betweenmastering a language andmerelybeingabletosay“please”and“thankyou”init.Heneverclaimedforhimselfevenasmallpartofwhathisidolatorsclaimedforhim.LearningaLanguageinTwoMonths’TimeStoriesgoaroundaboutpeople,supposedlygeniusesatlanguages,whocramgreatlearningintoshortintervals.Iamassumingmyreadersdonothavetimeforthis,eveniftheyhavetheinclination.EvenBurtonprobablyspentjustasmanytotalhoursasanyoneelse,onlyconcentratingitinashortspanoftime.

Ifapersonspentfortyhoursperweekfortwomonthslearningalanguage,thattotalsabout350hours—approximately the sameamountof time theForeignService Instituteestimatesthatittakestoattain“elementaryproficiency,”andthesameamountoftimeacollegestudentspendsinthreesemestersoflanguagestudy.

Whatwewant to get out of theBurton experience is nothow amazinghewas, butwhathedid—whattechniquesheemployedthatotherpeoplemightprofitablyimitate.“INeverWorkedforMoreThanaQuarterofanHourataTime...”ThisstatementbyBurtonisheartwarming.

Many people are discouraged about their lack of concentration.We often hear suchstatementsas,“Ican’tfixmymindonanythinganymore,”or“Idon’treadseriousbooks

anymore; I just can’t.” In all probability, the people speaking expect too much ofthemselves,andthenbecomediscouragedwhentheycannotliveuptotheirself-imposedexpectations.

LikeBurton,manypeopleworkbetterinshort,concentratedspurts.Ifso,thenthatisthewaytheyshouldstudy.Threespurtsoftwentyminuteseachmayadduptomorethananhourinresultsachieved.Thepersonwhositsdowntostudyforanhouroftenwastesagoodpartof it in sharpeningpencils, gettingadrinkofwater, andotherwisedawdling.Thespurtertendstogetthemostoutofhislimitedstudytime.

Therearegoodandbadtimestostudy,andpeopleoftenfailtotakeadvantageofthegoodones.Earlyinthemorning:byrisingfifteenminutesearlier,youcanreadapageofRussian a day.At lunchtime: you could practice Italian for fifteenminutes rather thanchattingwithoffice-mates.Beforedinner:asessionwithyourvocabularycardsmayhelppassthetime,andnoruleforbidslearningalanguagewithamartiniinyourhand;infact,itmayloweryourinhibitions.

Iknewamanwhousedhisshavingtimeto learnChinese.HepostedafewChinesecharactersonhismirroreverymorningand lookedat themwhileshaving.Itcosthimanick or two, but within a fewmonths he had learned five hundredChinese characterssolelywhileshaving.

6.OrganicLearning

Whenyoutakealanguageinhighschoolorcollege,youprobablylearn“conjugation”listslookingsomethinglikethis:

Igive

yougivehe,she,itgives

wegiveyougive

theygive

Youmaynotbeinschoolnow,andthereisnoreasonnottolearnthingsintheorderthatstrikesyourfancy,ratherthantheorderinwhichgrammariansputthemin.Ifyouletthe“needtoknow”beyourguide,studyingwillretainitsfreshnesslonger.

Youmight learn the verb “to give,” for example, by first learning the simple phrase“giveme...”Youwouldpracticeitbysayingthingslike,“Givemeascotch,”“Givemeyour phone number,” and so on. Soon this command formwill become automatic. Bythenyoumayhavebeguntowonderhowtosay,“Don’tgiveme...”(“Don’tgivemeredwine,givemewhitewine”).Thenitistimetolearnnegativecommands.

Later still, youwillwonderhow to say, “Giveher . . . ,” referring toanotherperson.Andstilllater,you’llwanttosay,“Youdidn’tgiveme...,”anegativeinthepasttense.

Meanwhile, you will be working along on other fronts, picking up vocabulary,improving your pronunciation, practicing other grammar features. Your progress willcomeaboutinanaturalway—organically.

In any growing organism, the parts develop in intimate interrelation to each other.FrankLloydWrightwroteinhisAutobiography,“Perfectco-relationisthefirstprincipleof growth. Integration, or even the very word ‘organic’ itself,means that nothing is ofvalueexceptasitisnaturallyrelatedtothewholeinthedirectionofsomelivingpurpose.”

The common teaching method that obliges students to learn one complete verbconjugationatatime,eventhoughtheydonothavethevocabularyandgrammartoputthatverbtowork,isamonstrosity—asifanewlyplantedtreeweresuddenlytosproutonehugeleafinsteadoftwigsandbranches.

Moreover,itisaperfectprescriptionfortedium.Seeingnoimmediateusetowhichhishard-wonknowledgecanbeput,astudentmustbeexceptionallyself-motivatedtoresist

the desire to quit. In fact, statistics show that an overwhelming majority of languagestudentsdoquitattheearliestpossiblemoment.

Nowthatyouareinchargeofyourownlearning,thehobgoblinofcompletenessforitsownsakeneednotdominateyourwork.Whetheryoutacklealanguageonyourown,orprefertheregularityanddisciplineofacourse,youarefreetopickandchoose.Ifcertainvocabularywordsorcertainpointsofgrammardonotmeananythingtoyourightnow,youcanletthemgo,knowingyoucanpickthemupatalatertime.

Letthe“livingpurpose”forwhichyouundertookthelanguagebeyourguideinhowtolearnit.

Youcanpickandchooseamongteachers,too.Agoodteacherwillholdyourinterestlonger,helpingyoutostickitoutwhenlearningbecomesdifficult.Searchuntilyoufindone.Youmayhavetotryoutseveralteachersbeforeyoufindtheespeciallygiftedoneyouareseeking,buttheeffortwillbeworthyourwhile.HowtoRecognizeaGoodTeacherIwanttocomparethefirstdayofclassintwodifferentlanguageclassesthatIvisitedatamajoruniversity.

TeacherAwalked into his Japanese class on the first day, greeted his students, andbegandescribing the soundsof Japanese.He contrasted themwith theEnglish sounds,using a number of technical terms like “voiceless” and “semi-vowel,”whichmost of hisstudentsdidnotunderstand.Buthewentrighton.Japanese,heexplained,isa“syllable-timed” language; the typical syllable isCV(consonant+vowel); therearea totalof105possiblesyllables.Hispreparedlecturetookuptheentireclasshour.

OnthefirstdayofteacherB’sSwahiliclass,hesaidhellotohisstudentsinEnglishandthen conducted the entire class in Swahili.He taught them to stand up when he said“stand”inSwahili,andtositdownwhenhesaid“sit.”Then,pantomimingthearrivalofavisitoratanAfricanhome,hetaughttheclasstoholdthisconversation:

Visitor: (knocks)Anyonehome?

Host: Who’sthere?

Visitor: It’s...(name).

Host: Comein,comein.

Visitor: (enters)Hello,howareyou?

Host: Fine,thankyou.Andyou?

Visitor: Verywell,thankyou.

Host: Pleasesitdown.

Visitor: Thankyou.(sitsdown)

When Teacher A’s class ended, his students were apprehensive. They had not

understoodall thephonetic terms,and felt theycouldnotpossiblymaster105syllables.TheonlywordofusefulJapanesetheyhadheardduringthathourwasthegreetingoftheteacherwhenheentered.

Teacher B’s Swahili students were also a little apprehensive. They had metpronunciationdifficultiesandtheyweresuretheycouldnotremembereverythingtheyhadlearned.Buttheywereexhilarated,too.TheyhadspokenSwahili,learnedusefulgreetings,andgottengood-natured funoutofeachother’s confusion.An espiritde corps hadbeenestablished,andwhileitwasclearthatlearningSwahiliwasgoingtobechallenging,theywerecertainlyeagerformore.

Ibelieveitisfairtoask,attheendofalanguagelesson,beitthefirstorthefiftieth,“WhatdidIlearntodaythatwouldhelpmeifIleftimmediatelyfortheforeigncountry?”IfClassAandClassBhadflowntotheirrespectivecountriesrightafterthatfirstlesson,theSwahilistudentswouldhavedeplanedwithafewwordsofgreetingontheirlips,whiletheJapanesestudentswouldhaveknownnomoreJapanese than if the lessonhadnevertakenplace.

There aremoreTeacherA’s thanTeacherB’s, and it isnot always easy to tell themapart, so I would like to list some specifics of teacher behavior that may help you torecognizeagoodteacher.TEACHER-TALKVERSUSSTUDENT-TALK.Knowingthatittakesalotofpracticetolearnaforeignlanguage,agoodlanguageteacherkeepstheclockconstantlyinmind.Curbinghisown tendency to expound, he disciplines himself to talk very little while getting hisstudentstotalkalot.Onewaytojudgeateacheristocalculatetheratioofteacher-talktostudent-talk.Withagoodteacher,itwillbeheavilyinfavorofstudent-talk.ENGLISH VERSUS FOREIGN LANGUAGE. How much time does the class spend usingEnglishwhentheycouldbeusingtheforeignlanguage?Agoodteacherteacheshisclass,early in the course, to understand all the repetitive pieces of classroom business: “openyourbooks,”“gototheboard,”“listencarefully,”“repeatafterme,”“sayitoncemore.”Allthat andmore can be done in the foreign language soon after the course begins. As ageneralrule,nomorethanfiveminutesofaclassoughttobespenttalkingEnglish—justenough toget a toughgrammarpointacrossorgivean importantassignment.The restcanandshouldbespentintheforeignlanguage.KEEPINGGRAMMAREXPLANATIONSSHORT.Grammar isbest learnedbyusing it,notbytalking about it. A teacher should direct his efforts, not into preparing elaborateexplanations, but into devising clever drills that get students to use grammar almostwithout realizing it.Experienceshows that there isnota singlepointofgrammar inanelementarycourse thatcannotbeexplained in fourminutesor less. If a teachergoesonlongerthanthat,heisstealingtimefromtheclass’srealneed:practice,practice,practice.AVOIDINGPRIVATEDISCUSSIONS.Agoodteacherdoesnotholdlengthydiscussionswithindividualstudentsduringclass.Ifanexplanationisrequestedthatisnotappropriateforthewholeclasstohear,theteachershouldeitheroffertodiscuss itafterclassoraskthestudent to hold his question until a later time when the point will become clear. An

efficientteacherkeepstheclockinmindandresumestheclasswithoutdelay.Noprivatediscussionsduringclasstime,please.ASKINGAQUESTION.Thequestion-and-answer technique isabsolutelybasic to languageteaching,butapoorlytrainedteachermaymishandleit.Hemayallowoneortwo“pushy”studentstomonopolizethequestions.Orhemay“telegraph”hisquestionsbyindicatingin advancewhich student is going to be called on; the others then “tune out.”A goodteacherdirectsallquestionstotheentireclass,anddoesnotcallonanyoneuntilallhavehadamomenttothinkofananswer.Then,ifthefirststudentcalledondoesnothavetheanswerready,theteachermovesonquicklytosomeoneelse.Movingrapidlyfromstudentto student, he gives everyone a fair chance, increases the class’s alertness, and providesmorepracticeforeachstudent.Thistechniquealsotendstosuppress“eagerbeavers.”

Teachers are paid professionals. They should be judged, at least in part, the cost-accountingway:byoutputperunitoftime.Astudentisentitledtoaskwhetherthehourshespendsinthelanguageclassaregivinghimafairreturninusablelanguageskills.

7.TheWordsandtheMusic

Everylanguagehasitsownmusic,itsriseandfall,itssmoothnessorchoppiness.Onecanlistenforthesealone,withallmeaningtunedout,likelisteningtoahubbubofvoicesinacrowdedroom,perceivingonlythemelody,notthewords.

Ourthree-year-oldson’sfirstexposuretoGermancamewhenwetookhimtoAustriaandhebegantoplaywithneighborhoodchildren.Hesaidnothingatfirst, justlistened.Then he gradually developed a gibberish language of his own. The “words” were ameaninglessbabble,buttheycontainedGermansoundslikechandüandthegutturalr,andhadthesamesingsongintonationasthelocalchildren.Hisconversationswiththemwerehilarious.TheytalkedtohiminGerman,andheansweredinfluentgibberish,withan authentic Tyrolean accent. He claimed he was “talking German,” and was amazedwhentheothersfailedtounderstandhim.

Themusicofalanguage,itsintonation,strikesyouevenwhenyoucannotcomprehendasingleword.Itcanalsobethefirstthingyoulearn.Evenbeforeenrollinginacourse,youcanabsorbthenewaccentbylisteningtosomeonespeakthelanguageandimitatingthesoundshemakes.Usenonsensesyllablesasinsinging,“Tum-de-dum-dum.”

Better still, imitate the way the foreign person speaks English. A foreign accent ismerely the transfer of speechhabits fromone language to another, andone can infer agooddealaboutFrench,forexample,fromthewayaFrenchmantalksEnglish.

Speech habits, acquired during one’s formative years, are deeply ingrained.Very fewpeoplepastadolescencearecapableofgiving theirsup in favorofanewset,henceveryfewpeoplelearntospeakaforeignlanguagelikeanative.Butwhenyousetouttolearnanew language, youwant to give yourself every chance tomaster it utterly.Oneway tobegin isby imitating, inEnglish, the accentof the language youhave chosen. It is likelearningthemusicofasongfirst,soyoucanlaterconcentratecompletelyonthewords.TrustYourEarOneMarchafternoonin1772,JamesBoswellwasvisitinghisfriendDr.SamuelJohnson,authorofafamousEnglishdictionary,athishomeintheFleetStreetsectionofLondon.Theywerediscussinganotherdictionarythathadrecentlyappeared.

Boswell: Itmaybeofuse,sir,tohaveadictionarytoascertainthepronunciation.

Johnson: Why,sir,mydictionaryshowstheaccentsofwordsifyoucanbutrememberthem.

Boswell:But,sir,wewantmarkstoascertainthepronunciationofthevowels.Sheridan,Ibelieve,hasfinishedsuchawork.

Johnson: Why,sir,willyouconsiderhowmucheasieritistolearnalanguagebytheearthanbyanymarks.Sheridan’sdictionarymaydoverywell.Butyoucannotalwayscarryitaboutwithyou;andwhenyouwanttheword,youhavenotthedictionary.Itislikeamanwhohasaswordthatwillnotdraw.Itisanadmirablesword,tobesure.Butwhileyourenemyiscuttingyourthroat,youcannotdrawthissword.

IoncehadasimilarexperiencewhenIpaidavisittoabusinessexecutiveinChicago.He was the president of a large publishing house, and was interested in having medemonstrate a self-teachingmethod I had recently devised inGreece. It is pertinent toexplain that themethodwas (and still is) fullyoral: theperson taking the lessonsholdssimulatedconversationswithnativeGreeks,guidedbyanAmericanteacher,allrecordedoncassettes.

I set the executive upwith a recorder, got him started onLessonOne, and left theroom.WhenIreturnedattheendofthehalf-hour lesson,I foundthat,contrarytomyinstructions, hehad takenout an envelope and jotteddown all theGreekwords in thelesson.HehelditupproudlyasIentered.“IthinkIgotthemall,”hesaid.

I have watched dozens of people take that same lesson, and they virtually alwaysemergeabletosayanumberofGreekphrasesfluently.Thisman,however,endedupwitha listofwordsonthebackofanenvelope.TheGreekwas inhispocket,butnot inhismind;hehadaswordthatwouldnotdraw.

Likemanypeople,thisimportantexecutivelackedfaithinthespokenword.Hetrustedonlywhathecouldseewrittendown.

A person studying a language has got to trust the spoken word, insubstantial andevanescent though it is. He must have faith that sounds, although invisible, have asubstanceandacharacteroftheirown.Hemustacceptashisobjectivetolearnthem,thesounds, rather than their written representation. And when there is a conflict, when aworddoesnotlookthewayitsounds,thenitisthesoundhemustbelieveinandclingto.

Many people, evenmany teachers, fall prey to the fallacy that thewritten formof alanguage is the language itself.Such teachers thenmake the errorof teaching from thewrittentothespokenlanguage,insteadofviceversa.PierreDelattre,arespectedauthorityonlanguagesandlanguageteaching,explainswhythisiswrong.

Itappearsthatthebasicerrorinlanguageteachingmethodsisoneoforder.Weputthecartbeforethehorse.Weuse the eye before we use the ear; we take up writing before we take up speaking; we teach reading before we teachpronouncing;westudytherulesbeforewestudytheexamples;weconcentrateonquantitybeforeweconcentrateonquality.Inall this,ourerror is thatwegoagainstthefactsof language.Alanguage is firstofall“speech”—asystemofsounds transmitteddirectly frommouth to ear andproducedby automatic reactionsof the speechorgans.Thefunctioningofthoseautomaticreactionsdependsonthelinguistichabitsofthespeaker,anditistheacquisitionofthosehabitsthatmustcomefirst.

Language, as Delattre says, is above all speech, not writing: a language that is notspokeniscalled“dead.”Ifyouwilltrustyourear,youarealmostcertaintospeakwithagoodaccent.Conversely,ifyoutrustyoureyealone,youraccentmaybeapoorone.Short-RangeObjectives

Learningaforeignlanguageis likefillingabucketfromaslow-runningtap.Ifyoukeeplookingintoseeifitisfull,yougrowmoreandmoreimpatient.Youmayfinallykickitoverandwalkaway.Butifthebuckethasnotchesthatshowwhenitisone-quarterfull,one-thirdfull,andsoon,thenyoucantakepleasureinwatchingthewaterrisefromnotchtonotch.Thefillingtimeisthesame,butthepsychologicaleffectisdifferent.

Inlearninga language,the long-rangepurpose—tomastertheforeigntongue—oftenappearsunattainable.Onemusthaveshort-rangegoalsaswell.

SupposeyouhavedecidedtostudySpanish.Someofyourshort-rangegoalsmightbe:tomasterthepresenttenseofcertainverbs;topronouncethetrilledr; to readyour firstmagazine article in Spanish; to order food from a Spanish menu. These goals can bereachedwithalimitedeffort,andyoucantakedelightinreachingthem.

The teacher’s function is to set day-to-day goals, encouraging his students toconcentrate,notonthedistantobjectiveoftotalfluency,butontakingonemorestep.Agoodteacherwillbreakthelanguagedownintomanageabletasks,helpyoutoaccomplishthem,andrewardyouwhenyoudo.Itisnotsomuchhisknowledgethatcounts;onecanfindthatinabookorrecord.Hisskillinfashioningalongchainoflearningintoviable,satisfying links iswhat keeps his studentsmoving alongwhen theymight otherwise betemptedtoquit.

The“Hows”ofLanguageLearning

Often, teachers assign newmaterial to be learned as “homework”: “Do the next threepagesathomeandwe’llgooverthemtomorrow.”Asateachingstrategy,thisiscockeyed,for it leaves the studentonhisown justwhenhemostneedshelp.Alonewith thenewvocabularyor thenewpoints of grammar,he is free tomakemistakes and learnwrongformstohisheart’scontent.Theymustbeunlearnedlater.

Skilled teachers—therearemanyof themandIhaveagreat fondness for themeventhough,forpurposesofthisbook,Ihavepointedoutnumerousclassroomerrors—skilledteachers, I say, prefer to present newmaterial themselves, in class, so they can provideinstantcorrectionduringthefirstfewcrucialstagesoflearning.

Still, regardless of how skilled a teacher he has been fortunate enough to find, thelanguagestudentwillgenerallyhavetosupplementtheclassworkathome.Whatfollowsisa set of techniques and principles, gleaned from experienced language learners, forstudyingforeignlanguages.Thelistisnotexhaustive;everypersonmustdevelophisowntechniques to suit his capacities and learning styles. But you are likely to find thesetechniqueseffectivewhetheryouaretakingalanguageinschoolorstudyingoneonyourown.

8.HowtoPracticePronunciation

DannyKaye in his comedy routines used to rattle off a chain of soundswith a foreignaccentandforeigngestures.TheaudiencewasconvincedhewastalkingFrenchwhenhewasactuallysayingonlynonsensesyllables,pronouncedwithaheavyFrenchaccent.Hecoulddothisinseverallanguages.

Themusicofaforeignlanguageisdifferentfromthewords.Ifyouknowevenafewwordsofaforeignlanguage, it ispossibletorattlethemoffwithsuchabeautifulaccentthat youmight bemistaken for a native. The right kind of practice, done in the rightframeofmind,canputanear-nativeaccentwithinanyone’sgrasp.ThinkSounds,NotLettersProbablythebiggestimpedimenttogoodpronunciationispicturinghowawordiswrittenwhile saying it. The written letters are associated in our minds with English sounds.Consequently, theseEnglish sounds rise automatically toour lips insteadof the foreignones,andwemustspendpartofourenergyincombattingthistendency.ThereisnothinghardaboutsayingtheFrenchwordfor“son,”whichispronounced“feess”—untilyouseeitwrittendown:fils.NeverLookattheLetterrInEnglish,thissoundispronounceddifferentlyfromother languages.OurtonguescurlupmorethanforaSpanishorItalianr,andinquitetheoppositedirectionfromaFrenchorGermanr.

Looking at thewrittenwordwhile saying itmakes the tongue instinctively take theEnglishrpositionandtherebymakeslearningtheforeignsoundmoredifficult.TheCorrectLearningSequenceThe correct learning sequence is this: listen carefully toget the sound firmlyplanted inyourear;thengraduallyimitateitwithyourtongue.Donotuseyoureyetillyouhavethepronunciationdownpat.TheLongeraWord,theHarderTheSpanishword fornationality isnacionalidad. Ithas five syllables (na-cio-na-li-dad),noneof themparticularlydifficult topronouncealone.But theattempt torattleoff thisfive-syllable word can twist a beginner’s tongue. The solution is to break it down intosmallerpartsandmasteritpiecebypiece.However...StartfromtheEnd

Insteadofsayingna-,then-cio-,andsoon,youshouldbeginattheendinstead.Say-dad,then-lidad,etc.Youwillretainthenaturalintonationofthewordthisway,andwon’triskswallowingtheending.Tryitbothwaysandsee.WorkwithaModelPronunciationdeteriorateseasily, so the longeryougowithoutcheckingyoursagainstanative, the more likely you are to revert to English speech habits. Check yourpronunciationoftenuntilgoodspeechhabitsarefirmlyestablishedinthenewlanguage.UseaTapeRecorderEverypersonwhostudiesaforeignlanguageoughttoownalight,portabletaperecorder.Thepriceofthesehandymachines,especiallyofthe“cassette”variety,islowenoughthatvirtually anyone can affordone, and it is thehandiest gadget imaginable for a languagestudent.Someofthethingsyoucandowithataperecorderthatyoucannotdowithoutoneare:

Haveanauthenticmodeltorefertoathome.

Learnwhiletraveling,evenwhiledrivingyourcar.Programyourownlearningandsobecomeyourownteacher.

Listentoyourownpronunciationandcompareitwithanative’s.Storetapesforlaterreview.

Somepeopleliketorecordtheir languageclassessothattheycanlistentothemoverandover.Mostcassetterecorderscomeequippedwithsensitive,unobtrusivemicrophonesthatpickupsoundsfromallpartsofaroomwithastoundingclarity.

Thesemachinesreallycomeintotheirownathome,however,wheretheycanbeusedforstudyingpracticallyeverything:pronunciation,grammar,andvocabulary.SamplePronunciationDrillsYoumaybefortunateenoughtorecordpronunciationdrillsintheclassroomthatyoucanlateruseathomeforadditionalpractice;youalsomaybeabletotakeadequatedrillsfromthetapes thataccompanyyour textbook.However, just incaseyouhave to (orwant to)makeyourownpronunciationdrills,hereisasampletoworkfrom.Itassumesyoucangetthe cooperation of another person to record the “model” voice; this person should be anativespeakerifpossible.(Yourteachermightwelldoitforyouandothersintheclassifyoumake the suggestion.)Failing that, ask another student in the class, onewithgoodpronunciation,todoitforyou.

Hereisasequence,whichshouldtakeaboutthirtysecondsinall,forlearningtosaythewordnacionalidad likeanative.Thesametechniquescanbeusedforwholephrasesandsentencesaswellas forsinglewords.First themodelspeaks, thenyourepeat inapauseyouhaveleftforthispurpose,andsoon,alternatingthemodelvoiceandyours:

Model You

-dad -dad

-dad -dad

-dad -dad

-lidad -lidad

-lidad -lidad

-nalidad -nalidad

-nalidad -nalidad

nacio- nacio-

nacio- nacio-

nacionalidad nacionalidad

EverySoundIsImportantThewifeofa friendofours,eager to improveherFrench, locatedaFrenchwomanandmadeanappointmenttogotoherapartmentforconversationlessons.Shebeganherfirstvisitbyexplaining thatherFrenchwasweakbecause shehadnot studiedmuchFrenchgrammar.Tohersurprise,theFrenchladystartedtoquestionherabouthergrandmother.Ourfriend’swifewasmystified,buttheconversationcontinued,anditwasnotuntilafterthelesson,reflectingonhowithadgone,thatsherealizedshemusthavesaidgrand’mère(grandmother)when shemeant grammaire (grammar).Different as they look on paper,thesetwoFrenchwordsareonlyonesoundawayfrombeingpronouncedidentically,andshehadsaidthewrongsound.

It is often difficult for people studying a language to understand why their teacherinsistsonseeminglytrivialnuancesofpronunciation.Iftwosoundsaresonearlyalikethatonecanhardlyhearthedifference,whybotherlearningtodistinguishthem?Itisbecause,alike as theymay seem to a foreigner, each sound is totally different from every othersoundtoanativespeakerofthelanguage;hecannotevenimaginehowsomeonecanfailtoperceive thedifference.Didyouever think that “it” couldbe confusedwith “eat,”or“ship” with “sheep”? Probably not, yet to many foreigners studying English, thisdistinctionseemssofaintastobenearly impossibletomaster.Manyneverdomaster itandsowehavethecomicbookcaricatureofaforeignerassomeonewhosays,“Geevmetheess”for,“Givemethis.”ShootAllProblemsonSightAn amusing anecdote will help me make my point. During the 1950s, I traveled toEuropeonaDutchstudentship.Itwasanex-troopshipfromWorldWarII,andfor$150youcouldgetabunkinadormitory.

Duringthethirteen-daytrip,wepassengersgottoknowsomeoftheDutchcrewfairlywell.Theonewesawmostoftenwasamessstewardwhosejobwastocirculateamongthepassengers three times a day, at mealtimes, ringing a set of chimes built like a child’sxylophone.Ithadfournotes—bong,bong,BONG,bong.

Theshipwassofullthatthepassengershadtobefedintwosittings,whichdoubledthemesssteward’swork.Toannouncethenoonmeal,forexample,hewouldwalkaroundat12:30,callingout,“Firstsitting...firstsitting.”Hewouldcomeagainat1:30,callingout,“Secondsitting...secondsitting.”

ThepointofthestoryisthatthereisnodistinctionintheDutchlanguagebetweenthesoundsandsh—ifyouseewhatImean.

Forthirteendays,thestudentsonboardnevertiredofteasinghim.Theypretendedtomisunderstandsothathewouldrepeat,alwayswithunfailinggoodhumor,callingoutthewordevenlouderthanbefore.

If the steward had seriously wanted to learn English, this incident would havehappened only once. He would have noticed the merriment his pronunciation wasproducing, tracked down the reason for it, and practiced until it disappeared. For him,however,theremayhavebeenmorerewardingettingalongcheerfullywiththepassengersthaninperfectinghisaccent,sohedidnotdoso.Don’tPracticeSingleSoundsOneshouldnotattempttopracticesoundsinisolation.TopronounceaFrenchrallalone,forexample,isnotonlyexcessivelydifficult,itisalsounrealistic.Whendoesoneeversayasoundallbyitself,exceptfor“Oh!”toconveysurpriseand“Ah!”toindicateadmiration?

Always practice sounds in a specific setting.TheFrench r, reputedly a very difficultsound,iseasiertopronounceinthewordParisthaninrouge,andneedstobepracticedinboth.TheSpanishr,too,ishardertopronounceatthebeginningofaword(rojo, “red”)thaninthemiddle(duro,“hard”),andinfactisslightlydifferentineachofthefollowingwords,dependingonthesoundsthatsurroundit:rio,por,para,padre,Francisco,tren.ThinkinSound-ClustersEach sound is a littledifferentdependingon its setting,becauseof theway the tonguemustglidefromonesoundtothenext.IntheFrenchexpressionJ’enaiun(“I’vegotone”),ortheSpanishsentenceVoyahacerlo(“I’lldoit”),youmightsayeachwordauthenticallyandyetbeunabletoglidethemtogetherwithanative-likeaccent.Onemustpracticetheglideaswellasthesounds.PracticeWholePhrases,NotWordsInreallife,astringofwordslike“Idon’tknow”or“Notonyourlife”issaidasthoughitwereasingleword,inonebreath-group,withoutpausing.Similarly,ifyoustoptotakeabreathinthemiddleofaforeignphrasethatshouldbesaidinasingleburst,youarenotsayingitcorrectly;youevenriskbeingincomprehensible.Mostpeoplethinkoflanguageas a collection of single words, perhaps because dictionaries are arranged in one-wordentries. But what is convenient in a dictionary actually does violence to the reality oflanguage.Inpracticingpronunciation,itisbesttothinkintermsofword-clustersandtopracticethelanguagethatway.MasteringaDifficultSound

NotlongafterWorldWarII,IwasastudentattheSorbonneandlivedinahotelintheLatinQuarter. I got to know several French studentswho also lived there, including ayoungactorandagirlofviolentleft-wingopinions.Thethreeofususedtogettogetherintheevening,andIwassometimesabletotreatthemtoararedelicacylikehotchocolateorcoffeeoutofmymother’slatest“care”package.OverthedrinkIwouldtrotoutthenewwords I had learned that day to check whether I understood their meaning and waspronouncingthemcorrectly.IhadbeeninFrancelessthanthreemonths,andFrenchwasverypainfulandlaboriousforme.

OneofmyhardestsoundswastheFrenchu.AtfirstIcouldnotsayitrightatall.ThenIgrewabletopronounceitinwordslikeduandpure,butIwasstillaverylongwayfromsaying other words—rue, for instance—like a Frenchman. There is an ad in the ParisHeraldTribunethatinstructsthereaderhowtogettoHarry’sBar.Itsays:“Tellthetaxidriver, SANKROODOENOO” (5 rueDaunou).My pronunciationwas little betterthan that, yet I couldn’t avoid theword rue, for I needed it practically everyday to askdirectionsorexchangeaddresseswithpeople.

Trying to master the word rue, I would walk around repeating it to myself at oddmoments,generallyaloud—rue,rue,rue.IntheeveningIwouldaskmytwofriendsifnowitwasright—andtheywouldsay“no”andpatientlyshowmeforthemillionthtimehowitoughttosound.

Finally, indesperation, I stumbledonto the “discrimination”method formastering areallydifficultforeignsound.IbegantokeepcarefultrackofwhenmyfriendsthoughtIwascloserandwhentheythoughtIwasfurtherawayfromthecorrectpronunciation.(Tomeitsoundedthesameallthetime,ofcourse.)AtlastInoticedthatwhenIaccidentallyproduced a kind of high-pitched whistling sound in saying the word, they would say,“There, that’s better.” From then on it was a matter of training myself to give it thiswhistling quality all the time. Although I would sometimes backslide out of fatigue, IknewthatifItookthetroubleIcouldsayitcorrectly.

Theimportantthinginmasteringadifficultsoundisto listenveryintently,tryingtodiscoverwhatgivesititsdistinctivequality.Goodpronunciation,asIhavetriedtoexplain,beginsnotinthemouthbutintheear.InviteaFriendtoMakeFunofYouWhenyouhavetroublehearingthedifferencebetweenwhatyouaresayingandwhatyououghttosay,askanacquaintancewhoisanative(orwhosoundslikeone)toimitateyourpronunciation followed by the right one. Wrong-right, wrong-right, just like this:roo/rue...roo/rue...overandover.Justlistenandtrytoseizewherethedifferencelies.Don’t try saying it yourself prematurely; you risk becoming discouraged easily at thispoint.Keeplisteninguntilyoufeelthedifferencepenetratingyou,andtheurgetosayityourself becomes strong. Most likely, you will be in a trance of concentration at thatmoment,fromfocusingsohardonaslimdifferenceinsound.Thenbeginadrillinwhichyousaythewordorphraseyourself,withyourfriendtellingyoueachtimewhetheryouaresayingitwellorbadly.Dothisforanumberoftries,untilthe“wells”becomemuchmorefrequentthanthe“badlys”;but...

IfYouBlock,StopIt is possible to become so drugged with repetitions that the foreign phrase loses allmeaning;onebecomestransfixedandtemporarilyunabletogoon.Ifthishappens,stopatonceandresumeyourpracticeatalatertime,afteracompletechangeofactivity.DifficultSoundsinEachLanguageAreFewinNumberI knew a real estate saleswoman in California who felt that her Russian accent wasinterfering with her business. She told me she was desperately eager to do somethingaboutit.Ianalyzedherspeechandfoundthatinpointoffactshewasmakingonlythreeor four pronunciation errors.Withmodest application, she could have eliminated or atleastimprovedthemall.ButwheneverIidentifiedaspecificproblemforher,shesuddenly“lostinterest,”claimingitwastoomuchtroubletothinkaboutcorrectingit.

Many people react thisway.When the discussion of a speech problembecomes toospecific,theybecomepsychologically“blocked,”andtuneout.Itmighthelpiftheycouldbeconvincedthatspeechproblemsarenotendless,astheyoftenseem,butactuallyquitefewinnumber,anddefinitelyfixable.WhentoSay“theHellwithIt”Pronunciation is important enough that one should try conscientiously to master theauthenticforeignaccent.Oneshowsrespectforforeignpeoplebynotmakingacaricatureoftheirlanguage.Moreover,oneisneversurewhenapronunciationproblemmayleadtoamisunderstanding,oreventoyourbecomingludicrous,astheDutchstewarddid.

However, there is considerablymore toa language thanpronunciation.WeallknowpeoplewhoimmigratedtotheUnitedStatesandhavefunctionedsuccessfullyheredespiteanoticeableforeignaccent.Pasttheageofeighteen,theodds,frankly,arepoorthatonewill ever completely lose the foreign accent.Aperson’sminimal goals shouldbe: (1) tolearnallthesoundsoftheforeignlanguagesoasnottorisksayingonewordforanother,and (2) to speak the language with an inoffensive accent. Beyond that, the desire topossess a perfect accentmust be weighed against the amount of practice and attentionneededtoobtainit.

9.HowtoMasterGrammar

AnAmericanwomaninMexicodoesagreatdealofworkhelpingMexicansinruralareastoimprovetheirlot.HerSpanishisfantasticallybad.Herverbsareallinfinitivesandherpronunciationisdeplorable.Yetsheiseminentlysuccessfulwithgovernmentofficials,forshe goes into ameeting and tries so hard to explainwhat shewants that theMexicanofficialsfeelsorryforher.Prettysoontheybegintohelpherpleadhercause,andintheprocesstheyconvincethemselvesandfellowofficialstogiveherwhatshewants.Forher,itpaystomaintainalowlevelofgrammaticalperformance.

Iamnotsuggestingthatoneshoulddeliberatelylearnalanguagebadly,butIdobelievethatoneshouldconcentrateoncommunicating.Ifyougetyourmessageacross,usingyourhands,eyes,andwhateverelseyoucanmusterinadditiontowords,youhaveachancetoimproveyourgrammarasyouproceed.Ifyouinsistoncorrectgrammarfromtheoutset,youmaywellgiveupoutofsheerfrustration.

Indeed, foolish insistence on “grammaticalness” as a value in itself is doubtlessresponsibleformorediscouragementandfailureinlanguageclassesthananyotherfactor.It isespeciallyshort-sightedwhenoneconsiders that, inanyreal-lifesituation,apersoncanchooseamongmanyalternativewaysofgettinghismeaningacross.Someonelearninga language needs to learn its grammar, of course—but organically, as part of fullinterpersonalcommunicationthatincludesfacialexpressions,gestures,socialconventions,andmanyothercomponentsthatmayoutweighgrammarinimportance.

Theemphasisshouldbeoncommunication,andifyourteacherdoesnotputitthere,thenyoumustdoitforyourself.Thissectionwillspellouttechniquesthatwillhelpyou.HowMuchGrammarIsThere?Thisisalegitimatequestionforsomeoneundertakingalanguagetoask,sohecansizeupthe total taskbeforehe starts.The rather encouraginganswer is that all thegrammarapersoneverneeds toknow is covered ina typical year-longcollege course (twoyears inhighschool).Afterthat,furthercoursesmerelyrepeatthesamegrammarinmorecomplexsentences—sentencesthatbecomemoreliteraryasyouadvance,thatis,furtherandfurtherfromnormalspeech.“Generative”GrammarGrammarusuallyisorganizedalonglinguistic,notpsychological,lines.Thegrammarianismainly concerned with the orderliness and internal consistency of his analysis—not itsteachableness. Hence, grammar is usually presented in a manner that violates the

psychological learning principlesmentioned in this book: anticipation, organic learning,the“needtoknow.”

A revolutionary approach to grammar has come into being in recent years thatmayeventuallyimprovematters.This“generative”approach,oftenassociatedwiththenameofits originator, NoamChomsky, aims to simulate the process by which native speakerscreate (“generate”) utterances in their language. The past several decades have seen atremendoussurgeofinterestandactivityinthisnewapproach,butlargelyonthefrontiersofpurelinguistics.Littlethatisofpracticalvaluehasfilteredintolanguagetextbooks,andChomskyhasstatedquiteclearlythathedoubtswhetheranyapplicationscanbemadeatthe present stage of this new science. As language learners, we are still dependent ontraditionalgrammar.FearofGrammarThe word “grammar” strikes terror into many people’s hearts, yet in reality the basicgrammarofalanguageisreasonablyeasytomaster.Grammarholdsnoterrorforathree-year-old child as he learns his native language, because he assimilates it unconsciously,intuitively.Likebike-ridingorroller-skating,onewaytomastergrammarisby“feel,”withvery little verbalization of rules. This is a viable alternative (or adjunct) to learninggrammarbyrulesandexamples,andsinceitislessfamiliar,Iwanttoexpoundalittleonhowthisintuitiveapproachworks.GrammarthroughtheEarPierre Delattre, commenting on an experiment he performed where one class learnedFrenchgrammarbytheruleswhileanotherlearneditbylisteningtorecordings,reportedthat“studentswhoworkedwithrecordingsacquiredgrammaticalhabitswithunexpectedease. They surmounted problems that looked very intricate in the light of linguisticanalysis.”

Using a musical analogy, he continued: “Learning grammar from the rules is likelearning the interpretation of amelody second-hand from the explanations of someonewhohashearditsung.Learningitfromdirectspeech,aswithrecordings,islikelearningthe interpretationof amelodydirectly fromhearing it sung. It is theonlyway toget itfullyandexactly.

“Afterall,”Delattreconcluded,“thehumanearisresponsibleforwhathumanspeechis;andwhattheearhasdone,theearcanunderstandbetterthanthemind.Theearmayfindsimplewhatthemindcallscomplicated.”GrammarthroughOralPracticeWhile teaching French at UCLA, I did an experiment akin toDelattre’s that showedvividlythevalueofanoralapproachtogrammar.

OneofthehardestfeaturesofFrenchgrammartoteachistheuseofpronouns.Theyarenotdifficultinthemselves,buttherulesaboutthemarecomplicatedtoexpress.

Jeleluidonnemeans“Igiveittohim.”Leisthedirectobjectpronoun;luiistheindirectobjectpronoun.

Thetraditionalwaytoteachthesepronounsisbygivingtherules—firstforthedirectobject,thenfortheindirect,thenforbothtogether.Itoftentakesaweektotendaystoteachpronounsinacollegecourse.

Oneyear,whenitcametimetoteachpronouns,Iaskedmycolleaguestoletmetryanexperiment.Certainclasseswouldpracticesayingpronoun-filledsentencesinthelanguagelaboratory,withouthearinganyrules,whileother(“control”)classeswouldlearnthembytheusualmethod—astatementofrulesfollowedbywrittenandoralexercises.Thenbothgroupswouldtakethesametest.

Thoughunconvinced, they agreed to letme try the experiment, knowing they couldalwaysteachtheruleslateronifmyoralmethodshouldproveafailure.

The students in the “experimental” group came to the language laboratory twice.Working with tape recordings, they first repeated about thirty French sentencescontainingpronouns.Thentheydidavarietyof“patterndrills.”Thetapewouldsay,forexample,Jereçoislepaquet(Ireceivethepackage),andduringapausethestudentwastorespondwithJelereçois(Ireceiveit).

Thepracticesentencesgraduallygrewmorecomplexuntilthestudentscouldrespondtoa cue like Jedonne le cadeauàHenri (I give thepresent toHenry)by saying, Je le luidonne(Igiveittohim).Duringthetwothirty-minutesessions,theyheardandsaidoverahundredFrenchsentencescontainingpronounsinvariousconfigurations.

Meanwhile, the control classes receivedconventional instruction.They learnedarulefordirectobjectpronounsandpracticedtheseforawhile,thenarulefor indirectobjectpronouns followed by practice, and finally a rule for both together, with additionalpractice.Partorallofsixclassperiodswastakenupinthisway.

Theoutcomewasthat,whenbothgroupsweretestedontheirabilitytosayandwriteFrench sentences containing pronouns, the students who had spent only sixty minutespracticinginthelabdidslightlybetterthanthosewhohadspentmorethanaweekonitinclass.

Thereasonfortheiradvantage issimple.Theyhadheardandsaida largenumberofcorrect French sentences, and their ears had become so attuned that only a correctsentence “sounded right” to them.The conventional group,having to rely on the rules,wasobligedtofigureouteachsentencewithpainstakingcare.Notonlydidthistakethemlonger, but theyweremuchmore apt tomake trivial errors by slightlymisapplying therules,sincetheyhadno“senseofcorrectness”tofallbackon.

This “sense of correctness,” lodged in every native speaker’s ear through longhabituation,enableshiminstantlytorecognizeanincorrectsentencewhenhehearsone.As native speakers of English, we have not the slightest doubt that “He is going” is acorrect sentence,while “hegoing” isnon-standardbutpossible (perhapsbaby-talk), and“Goinghe”isimpossible.Usingthissense,wecaninstantlyidentifyforeignersandotherspeakersofnon-standardEnglish,andcancorrectourchildrenwhentheysay“Hegoed”insteadof “Hewent.”Aperson learning a foreign languageneeds todevelop this samesense,andextensiveoralpracticeisthemostdirectroutetoobtainingit.

Theother teacherswere amazed at the results of the experiment. It convinced themthat oral practice canbe a viable alternative to conventional grammar, at least for somestudents, and that oral practice is, at the very least, a precious adjunct to “learning therules.”

Anyonecanprovidehisownoralpracticebyusinga tapeor cassette recorder.Whatoneneedstoknowishowto“program”alanguageexercise.

By following a simple principle, one can turn a tape recorder into a sophisticated“teachingmachine.”Icallthisprinciple“anticipation”becausethelearnermustanticipatethecorrectresponse;hemustsayithimselfbeforethetapesaysit.Thisprinciple,whichIbelievetobeabsolutelybasictolearning,meritsmorediscussion.AnticipationThe best arrangement of material for learning, one that many good teachers useinstinctively, is: (1)poseachallenge, (2) let thestudents try torespond,and(3)providethecorrectresponse.

Thisprinciple canbe seen in actionwhereverpeople are engaged in learning.WhenDaddyaskshislittlechildhowmuchtwoandtwoare,andthenstartstogivetheanswer,the child interruptswith, “No, no,Daddy, letme try itmyself.”He is demanding steptwo,thepause.

Thenthechildventuresananswer.“Four,”hesays,andimmediatelythereafter,“Isthatright,Daddy?”Heisdemandingstepthree.AndhewillnotallowDaddytomerelysay,“That’sright.”Heinsiststhattheanswerberepeated.Daddymustsay,“That’sright,twoandtwoarefour.”

The commonest violation of this principle among language teachers is their nagginginsistenceonrepetition.Theymakestudentsparrotsentencesintheforeignlanguage,inthe naive expectation that the correct forms will thereby “sink in.” But the mind,neurophysiologists tell us,doesnot function like awaxdiskwhosegroovesweardeeperthroughrepetition.Onthecontrary,repetitionmayhavea lulling,dullingeffect,which,whencarriedtoextremes,becomeshypnotic.Awordsaidoverandovermanytimessoonlosesallmeaningandrevertstoajumbleofsounds.

Itisnoveltythatsparksthemindtoattention;weperkupourearsattheunexpected.According to one internationally recognized neurophysiologist, H. W. Magoun, theknownfactsabouttheworkingsofthebrain“plainlyimplythatrepetitionisthefirstlaw,notoflearning,butofhabituation,whoseinfluenceuponlearningisanegativeratherthana positive one. Obviously, the promotion of novelty rather than of repetition shouldbecometheprimarylawoflearning.”

Noveltymeanssomethingnew,anewchallenge.Translatedintoaformulaonecanuseinstudyinggrammar,thethree-stepprincipleofanticipationbecomes:

CUE—PAUSE—RESPONSE

To “program” your learningof grammarmost efficiently, prepare your own exercisesusingthethree-stepformula.First,deviseaseriesofcuesintheforeignlanguagethatwillelicit sentences containing thedesiredgrammar.Next, record themonyourcassetteor taperecorder,leavingjustenoughpauseaftereachcuesothat,ifyouknewthegrammarpointthoroughly, you could give the answer in the time allowed. Then record the correctresponseaftereachpause.Thismaysoundcomplicated,butanexamplewillshowittobeextremelysimple.

LetusassumeyouareaforeignpersonstudyingEnglishandthatyouareworkingonthepasttenseoftheverb“togo.”Yourexercisemightstartlikethis:

Cue: Areyougoingtothemoviestoday?(PAUSE)

Response: No,Iwentyesterday.

Cue: IsyoursistergoingtoEuropethisyear?(PAUSE)

Response: No,shewentlastyear.

Approximatelytensuchsetsofcuesandresponsesmakeupa“patterndrill,”andoneortwo such drills would impress the past tense of “to go” on you in a matter of a fewminutes.

Asyouprogress, yourdrillswill growmore complex,but thatdoesnotmeanmerelyusing longer sentences. The real secret of learning is gradually tomix together diversepointsofgrammar—tomix“togo”togetherwithotherverbsinthepasttense,thenwithotherverbs inothertenses—sothat“togo” iselicitedunexpectedly.Thekeyfeature istohaveitpopupunexpectedly,thusprovidingthenoveltythataccelerateslearning.

I can imagine someofmy readers’ questions.How, youmaywonder, can IprogramexercisesinalanguageIdonotknow?Theansweristhatyoumayfindthemready-madeinyourown textbook,or in another textbook . . . at least inprinted form,andperhapsevenrecordedbynativesontape.Somepublishersdoprovidethissortofaidatpresent.Ifnot,youmustpreparethedrillsyourself,andthereisprobablynobetterwaytolearn.

Youmayobjectthatifyougotoallthetroubleofwritingoutdrills,thenthereisnorealneedtorecordthem.However,itisnotthesametopuzzleoverawrittensentencetillyougetitrightasitispromptlytoansweraninterlocutor.Onehasnotreallymasteredthegrammarpointuntilonecanuseitaloudatsomethingnearconversationalspeed.

Ifwell conceived and carried out at a smart tempo, pattern drills can be a languagestudent’schief tool for learninggrammar.This isknowntomost teachers,butmanydonottakethetroubletomakeuptheneededdrills,orelsedonotcarrythemoutorallyatarapidpace.Soagainwecome to this:Takechargeofyourown learning.Programyourownstudyofgrammar,andyouwillhavemorefunlearningthelanguage.PronounsMore than 50 percent of the grammar exercises in an elementary language course dealwith just two features of grammar: pronouns and verbs. These two frequently cause

consternationquiteoutofproportiontotheirrealdifficulty.Pronouns lend themselves quite naturally to the pattern drill approach.Virtually any

questiononecanaskwillbringabout theuseofapronounor two in theanswer.Someexamples:

Q:Didyouseeyourbrother’swifeyesterday?

A:Yes,Isawher.Q:Hasn’tMrs.Dexterlostalotofweightlately?

A:Yes,shehas.Q:Didn’tyourfatherlendhisgoldwatchtothemannextdoor?

A:Yes,hedidlendittohim.

Theprincipleissimpleenough:makeupcuesthatwillforceyoutousepronounsintheanswer. I think most readers will find they can apply this to their specific pronoun-learningproblem,withjustoneproviso:youmustforgettheoldclassroombugabooaboutansweringin“completesentences”andgivenaturalanswersinstead.VerbsVerbsaretheonlywordsinmostlanguagesthatcanassumemanyforms.InFrench,forexample,anouncanhaveonlytwoforms(singularandplural),andanadjectiveonlyfour(masculine singular and plural, feminine singular and plural). But a verb . . . ! I oncecountedthedifferentwrittenformsaFrenchverbcantakeandwasamazedtofindover130!Obviously,learningverbformsisoneofthemosttime-consumingtasksingrammar,butfortunatelytherearewaystomakeiteasier.REGULARAND IRREGULARVERBS.Thegrammarians’divisionof verbs into “regular” and“irregular” causes students much unnecessary anguish, for it leads them to believe thatlanguage ought to behave perfectly and that “exceptions” are reprehensible outlaws thathavesomehowescapedtherules.

Iprefertoassumeinstead,likeZorbatheGreek,that“lifehasnoexceptions.”Alivinglanguage,likealivingperson,mustbeacceptedasis,withoutprejudginghowitisgoingtobehave.

Fortunately,theforceofananalogyinlanguageisstrong;newwordstendtoformonthemodel of existingwords. It becomes apparent, after a certain number of “irregular”verbshavebeenlearned,thatthey,too,haveregularitiesincommonthatmakethemeasiertoremember.ADOZENKEYVERBALCONCEPTS.Verbsobeyadistinctdistributionpattern:adozenorsocommonverbs(be,do,go,etc.)accountforaveryhighpercentageofallverboccurrences.Thesefewarealmostall“irregular,”for,beingonpeople’stonguesmoreoften,theyhaveevolvedandchangedformfaster.

Thedozenkeyverbalconceptsarethefollowing:tobetohave

tobeable

tocome

togotoknow

totaketowant

tosayortelltodoormake

toseetogive

Make it one of your earliest jobs to find out how the language you are studyingexpressestheseconcepts.(Someofthem,like“tobe”inSpanishand“toknow”inFrench,maybeexpressedbymorethanoneverb.)Learntorecognizetheminthepresentandpasttenses.Afterthat,throughthepowerofanalogy,other“irregular”verbswillfallintoplacein your mind easily. Meanwhile, knowing these few verbs, you can begin reading theforeignlanguagevirtuallyatonce.LEARN VERBS HORIZONTALLY. Textbooks conventionally separate Romance languageverbsintoseveral“conjugations,”whichtheyteachseparately,oneatatime.Thisisneatandlogicalinappearance,butpsychologicallyitisallwrong,makingverbshardertolearnbystressingtheirdifferencesratherthantheirsimilarities.

TakingthreetypicalFrenchverbs,onefromeachconjugation,asanillustration,letuslook at them in the conventionalway, vertically, and inwhat I regard as the common-sensefashion,horizontally.

VerticalPresentationofFrenchVerbs

1.Firstconjugation:laver(“towash”)jelave

tulavesil,ellelave

nouslavonsvouslavez

ils,elleslavent2.Secondconjugation:finir(“tofinish”)

jefinistufinis

il,ellefinitnousfinissons

vousfinissezils,ellesfinissent

3.Thirdconjugation:vendre(“tosell”)jevends

tuvendsil,ellevend

nousvendons

vousvendezils,ellesvendent

Studying these verbs from top tobottom,weget the impression that there are threedistinct sorts of verb to be learned. To discover their similarities would requireconsiderablecross-checking.

Hereisthesameinformationpositionedsideways:HorizontalPresentationofFrenchVerbs

1 2 3

jelave jefinis jevends

tulaves tufinis tuvends

il,ellelave il,ellefinit il,ellevend

nouslavons nousfinissons nousvendons

vouslavez vousfinissez vousvendez

ils,elleslavent ils,ellesfinissent ils,ellesvendent

Reading across, line by line, we discover that each of the six “persons” has acharacteristic ending, regardless ofwhich “conjugation” the verb belongs to.The pluralendings are identical in all conjugations (-ons, -ez, -ent), and so is the second personsingular ending (-s). The -iss- inserted in the plural of -ir verbs is regular and easy tomaster.Theonlylearningproblemswillbethefirstandthirdpersonsingularendings,andevenheretherangeofpossibilitiesisverylimited:thefirstpersonendseitherin-eorin-s,andthethirdpersonin-e,-t,orinnothing.1

ThisisnottheplacetopursueadetaileddiscussionofFrenchverbs.Imerelywishtopointouthowlinguisticshastriumphedoverpsychologyinconventionalteaching.Whatthestudentneedstoknowisthecharacteristicwrittenendingthatidentifieseachpersonoftheverb.Clearandsimpleexplanationsofgrammarpointssuchasthistendtoemergenaturallywhenateacheradoptsanorganic,student-centeredattitudeandletshisgrammarexplanationsbeguidedbythestudents’growing“needtoknow.”

Whatyou,asthelearner,candoistoconstructyourowngrammarinaccordancewithyour own needs, taking the facts you learn in class or in your book and putting themtogethertosuityourparticularlearningstyle.

I urge you todo this even at the risk ofmaking somemistakes.Your eventual goal,afterall,istohaveinyourmindagrammaticalschemathatwillenableyouto“generate”utterances in the foreign language. Mistakes are inevitable and unimportant, for thisschemaisaliving,growingorganism,andwillbefleshedout,modified,andimprovedasyougainfurtherknowledgeofthelanguage.LearntheHardestThingFirst

Ihesitate tobringup thenextprinciple,because it appears to flydirectly in the faceofreason.Yetithashelpedmemorethanalmostanyother,soIcannotleaveitout.

Oneassumptionaboutlearningisvirtuallyuniversal.Practicallyeverybodybelievesthatlearningmustbuildupgradually fromthesimpletothecomplex.Now,whatImeantosuggestisthatinlearningalanguageoneshouldoftendoquitetheopposite.Myprincipleisthis:Learnthehardestthingfirstandtherestwillthenseemeasy.

Thepronoun example provides a good illustration.The “one brick at a time” theorywould dictate learning different kinds of pronouns separately before putting themtogether.Yetinpracticeitturnsoutthatthesentencewithseveralpronouns(“Shegaveittohim”)isaseasytolearnasasentencewithonlyonepronoun.Perhapseasier.

Similarly, a sentencewith two adverbs (“The horse ran exceptionally fast”) is hardlymoredifficultthanasentencewithonlyone(“Thehorseranfast”),andfurnishesaddedpractice at little added cost. It may in fact be easier to remember because it is moreinteresting.

The simple-to-complex procedure is psychologically backward; one expends freshenergyonsimplethingsandisfatiguedbythetimethecomplexonesarrive.Thenetresultisoftenasenseofdiscouragement.

I believe good sense dictates that one should attack the hardest features at thebeginningofeachlesson,whenoneismostreceptive.Thesimplerpointsthentendtofallintoplacebythemselves,andtheremainderofthelessonislikecoastingdownhill.GenderInasceneinFrançoisTruffaut’spoignantfilmJulesandJim,weseethetitlecharacters,ayoungGermanandayoungFrenchman,sittingbeforethefireinaBavarianchalet.TheGermanmusesaboutthegenderofwordsintheirtwolanguages:

Jules: Thinkofit.Wordscannothavethesamemeaningastheyarenotofthesamesex.InGerman,war,death,andthemoonaremasculine,whilethesunandlovearefeminine.Lifeisneuter.

Jim: Life?Neuter?That’sanicethought...andverylogical,too.

Manypeoplehesitatetolearnalanguagepartlyoutoffearofbeingunabletorememberthegendersofwords,afearthatislargelyunjustified.

In theRomance languages, gender is not truly difficult.Mostwords inSpanish andItaliancarrytheirgenderwiththem,inthefinalvowel(-oformasculine,-aforfeminine).InFrenchthereisnosuchsimplesign,butonequicklyacquiresa“feel”forgender,andlearnshelpfulrules—forexample, thatallwordsending in–ionarefeminine(occupation,notion,discussion,andsoon).

Whenoneforgetsthegenderofaword,onetakesaguessatit.InFrench,withonlytwogenders,acompletelywildguesshasafifty-fiftychanceofbeingright.An“educated”guessofcoursehasabetterchance,andyoufinallygettothepoint,aftersomemonthsof

studyingFrench,whereyouhavean80or90percentlikelihoodofguessingthegenderofwordscorrectly.

Not so inGerman.With three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), the odds aretwo-to-oneagainstawildguessbeingcorrect.Thoughtheseoddsimprovewithstudy,theproblem remains vexing in German longer than it does in French. This is one of thecomplexitiesofGermangrammar.

Often,however,theproblemofgenderismorepsychologicalthanreal.Whenoneisanobviousbeginnerinthelanguage,foreignpeoplearequitewillingtooverlooksuchtriflesasawronggender;peoplelistentothemeaningofwhatanotherpersonissaying,nottohisgrammar.Lateron,whenoneknowsthelanguagebetter,onegenerallyfindsthatone’s“feel” forgenderhas improvedalongwithotherprogress; thenumberoferrorsbecomestolerablysmall.

Thepsychologicalproblemhere is thatmistakes ingender seemto “stickout” in themindofthepersonwhomakesthem.Apersonmaymassacreverbtensesanduseallthewrongorderwithoutembarrassment,butifhesuddenlyrealizeshehassaid“lemaison”for“lamaison,”heismortified.

Itshouldbeaconsolationtoknowthatevennativesdonotmastergenderperfectly.Adailyaudience-participationshowontheFrenchradioisbuiltaroundastandardtypeofstickler,which is to telephoneacontestantathomeandreadhima listofeightFrenchwords.Heisscoredonhowmanywordshecangivethecorrectgender.Theytelephonepeopleintwodifferenttowns;thetownthatknowsitsgendersbetteristhewinner.

Control of gender grows “organically”with increasingmastery of the language.Onemustguardagainstthetendencytoamplifyanoccasionallapseoutofallproportiontoitsrealimportance.

1. In a sense, this explanation is false, because it presents only thewritten forms ofFrench verbs. In speech, severalendings are silent andhence the number of forms is smaller.One of themost heated controversies among languageteachersiswhetheroneshouldpresentthespokenformsfirst,thewrittenformsfirst,orbothtogether.Thereismuchtobesaidonthissubject,andIwillnotattempttoresolveithere.

10.HowtoLearnVocabulary

The reader already knows that I consider vocabulary harder to learn than grammar orpronunciation.Tobecomeafairlyfluentspeakerofalanguage,withfivethousandwordsathiscommand,apersonwouldhavetolearntennewwordsaday,dayinanddayout,forayearandahalf.Fewpeoplecankeepupsuchapace;asthevocabularybeginstopileup,onemayfindoneselfforgettingoldwordsalmostasfastasonelearnsnewones.Thisisaseriousproblem,butobviouslyitcanbelicked.Variousdevicescanhelp.UrgencySometimestheemotionsurroundingawordhelpsimpressitonourmemories,especiallyinaforeigncountrywhereallcontactsseemtobeheightenedbynewness.

GeorgeandMariearrivedinGermanybarelyamonthbeforetheirfirstbabywasdue.Knowing very little German, Marie was nervous at the prospect of giving birth in aGermanhospitalwhere the staff,despite their claims to thecontrary, spokevirtuallynoEnglish.

Duringherstayinthehospital,shefoundherselflearningvocabularywithaneasebornofdesperation. Ina singlehearing, shepickedupwords likeSpritze (injection),Narkose(anesthetic), and stillen (breast-feeding). No need to say them over and over; theiremotionalimpactmadethemstickinhermindafterasinglehearing.

Thesameprinciplemayhelpyou.Trytoinjectanoteofurgencyintoyourattitudeasyou learnvocabulary.Evendo itartificially.Lateron, theemotionalattitudeyouhadatthetimeoflearningmayhelpyoutoremember.

Often, a life situation can be handled without words, merely by a gesture. Certainmovements of the hand or head can mean “Yes,” or “I mean that one,” or “Stop, forheaven’ssake!”

Sometimesasinglewordisrequired—“later,”“good,”“hot.”Butevery sooftena traveler runs intoa situationwhereaparticularword iscrucially

needed—onehedoesnothappentoknow.Thatsortofword,oncelearned,isnoteasilyforgotten.

MycousinJean,alivelyandprettywoman,oncetookatriptoItaly.Beinganartlover,shetookthetrainfromRometoRavennatoseethemosaics.Itwaswinter.Shewastheonlyforeigneronthetrain.

ShewasscheduledforafastchangeoftrainsinBologna,withbarelyenoughtimetogetfromonetracktotheother.Shehadaheavysuitcaseandneededaporter,butdidn’tknowhowtocalloneinItalian.Asshewaswrestlingwithhersuitcase,fearfulshewouldmiss her connection, an Italianman in her compartment realized her predicament.Hepulled open thewindow, shoved the suitcase out, andheld it danglingwhile he yelled,“Facchino.. .facchino!”Aportercamerunningtothewindow,grabbedthesuitcase,andhurriedwithittotheothertrain.Mycousinhadnodifficultyrememberingthewordforporterduringtheremainderofhertrip.Sheremembersittoday,thoughshehasnotbeenbacktoItalyinmorethantenyears.Don’tJustRepeatWhatonehopestoaccomplishinlearningvocabularyistostrengthenthebondbetweenstimulusandresponse—betweensomelifesituationthatcallsforaparticularutteranceandthe utterance itself. To merely repeat without re-creating the situation is almostcompletelyuseless.(Isay“almost”becausesomegoodmaybederivedfromrepetition:itmayhelpone’spronunciation.)

Ifthekeytolearningisnotrepetition,whatisit?Earlier,Isaiditwasnovelty.NowIwanttoexplainhownoveltyisachievedthroughrandomization.RandomizeStartingwiththeABCs,wearetaughtasmanythingsaspossibleindefinedorders.Thedaysoftheweek,thenumbersfromonetoahundred,theconjugationsofverbs.Oftenwearetaughttorepeatthesebyrote,likealitany.

However, some things shouldbe learnedout oforder—or,moreprecisely, in randomorder.Becausethatishowweencountertheminlife.

Most important is to avoid the “serial order effect”—the cumbersome business ofmentallyflippingthroughawholelisttillyougettotheitemyouneed.Ifyouwanttosaythenumber“seven”inaforeignlanguage,itistedioustohavetorunthrough1,2,3,4,5,and6.Orifyouwanttosay“Saturday,”youmayfindyoucannotrememberitunlessyourecitethedaysoftheweekstartingfromSunday.Thisistheserialordereffect.

Knowledgeisbestwhenit is free-floatinginthemind,availabletoberecalledatanytime,inanyorder.Learningalistbyrotemaybeafirststep—itenablesyoutodrillwhilewalkingdownthestreet.Butrotepracticegivesonlytheillusionoflearning,sinceitdoesnot lead to randomcommand.Practice in randomorder, though itmay appear to takelonger,actuallyeconomizestimeinthelongrunandprovidesthemostdependablerecall.Ithasbeen shown that five repetitions randomly spacedhavemore effecton long-termretentionthanseveraltimesthatmanydonebyrote.UseFlashCardsOnewayto translate theprincipleof randomorder learning intopractice is touse flashcards.Theseareseparateslipsofpaperorcardboardonwhichyouenterthewordsyouaretryingtomaster.Youcanmakethemoutof filecardsorbuythemready-made(“vis-edcards”)atmostschoolbookstores.Theiradvantageisthatyoucanreshufflethematwill.

You’ll find it funto inventgameswhile learning.Groupingthecards into“easy”and“hard”pilesmaygiveyoutheenjoymentofseeingonepilediminishandtheothergrowasyou master them. This may keep up your spirits while it cuts your learning time byallowingyou togo through the “hard”pilemoreoften than the “easy”pile.Total studytimeisreduced;youareputtingineffortonlywhereitisneeded.

Itisbettertowriteawholephraseontheflashcardsthanasingleword,foraphraseisnotmuchhardertolearnandisverymuchmoreuseful.Somepsychologistsevencontendthataphrase isnotharderatall,because, theysay, themind“encodes” itas if itwereasingleword.Theypointoutthatpeople learnnumbersequencesas if theywereasingleunit(thenumbers1,4,9,2become“fourteenninety-two”)andwordsequencesasiftheyweresinglewords(thefourwordskeep/off/the/grassbecome“Keep-off-the-grass”).

Phrases aremore serviceable than singlewordsbecause they are ready togo toworkwithout furtheradaptation. If youare studyingEnglish, andyou learn thephrase “Givemeamenu,please,”youcanuseitasiswhenyougotoarestaurant.Youalsomaybeabletocombinepartsofitwithpiecesofotherphrasesalreadylearned.Bysubstitutingfortheword “menu,” for instance, you can produce sentences like: “Give me a screwdriver,please,”or“Givemea timetable,please.”Oryoucan insertotherphrases into thesameslot,producingnewutterances like: “Givemeabowlof soup,please,”or “Givemethatpairofshoes,please.”

Writeonyour flashcardsaphraseor sentence that showsa typicalusage. If youarestudyingFrenchandwanttolearnthewordforwine,makeupaflashcardwithaphraselikeduvinblanc(somewhitewine)orJepréfèrelevinrouge(Ipreferredwine).

Similarly,ifyouwishtolearnagrammaticalexpression—let’ssayjusqu’à(until)—putitdownonaflashcardinasentencelikeIlestrestéjusqu’aumatin(Hestayeduntilmorning).Themorestrikingorentertainingyoursentenceis,thebetteryouareapttorecallit.VarytheEnglishSideAtypicallistofforeignlanguagevocabularytobelearnedlookslikethis:

night—lanuit

day—lejourhappy—heureux

question—laquestionanswer—laréponse

...andsoon.However,thisisnotthewayyourflashcardsshouldlook,foratleasttwogoodreasons.YoudonotwanttopairupFrenchwordswithEnglishwordslestyoubeabletorecalllanuitonlywhenthinking“night.”Rather,youwantlanuittooccurtoyouwhenyouare“thinkinginFrench,”withouthavingtogothroughEnglishtorememberit.Secondly, youwant topractice thewordnuit in the very situations inwhichyoumighthavetouseit.

Hence,youmakeseveralflashcards(orseverallinesonone),usingeachwordinseveraldifferenttypicalcontexts.Forlanuit,youmightmakethreecards,reading:

EnglishSide FrenchSide

Inevergooutatnight. Jenesorsjamaislanuit.

Goodnight. Bonnenuit.

Isleptbadlylastnight. J’aimaldormicettenuit.

Mixthosecardsinwiththeotherssothey’llcomeupinrandomorder.OnceyoucandelivertheFrenchsentenceinresponsetothesethreedifferentstimuli,you“know”lanuitin a much richer sense than if you could say it only in response to the English word“night.”ProgramYourMemoryIonceheardateachersaytoaclass:“Youmustn’tforgetthesentencepatternswelearnedlastweek.Youmustapplythemconstantly.”Where,Iwondered,weretheysupposedtoapply them, when their only contact with the language was in the class? It was theteacher’sjobtokeepthemfromforgetting,notjustwarnthemtoremember.

Imaintainthatastudent’smemoryislargelytheteacher’sresponsibility.Thisisanovelnotion,formostpeoplebelievethatmemoryisaprivatematterandthatifapersonforgetswhathehaslearneditisnoone’sfaultbuthisown.IwillexplainwhatImean.

Onevalueofflashcardsisthattheycanberandomizedeasily,byshufflingthem.Thewords will then come up unexpectedly, by chance. Suppose, however, that instead ofdependingonchance,youcould“program”thecardssothateachwordcameupatjusttherightmomenttoensurethelongestretentionwiththefewestexposures?Suchaprogramwouldbewortha lot, for itwouldreduceyourstudytimetoaminimumwhilevirtuallyguaranteeingmaximumretention.

Thereisaprogram,whichIcall“graduatedintervalrecall.”Hereishowitworks.Letussupposethatyouhave justthis instant learnedanewvocabularyword.Follow

closely what happens as you commit it to memory. First, you repeat it a few times,adjustingthepronunciation.Youmaytellyourselfyouwanttorememberit,butthenyougoontothinkaboutotherthings,andasyoudo,thewordyouhavejustlearnedstartsfadingrapidly.Ifyoutrytothinkofitagainafterfiveminuteshavepassed,youwillprobablyfindit is no longer in yourmind.This is depressing. (“Damn, I forgot it; I don’t have anymemoryfortheseforeignwords.”)

Butsupposeyouhadnotletthememoryfadeforfiveminutes?Supposeyouhadtestedyourself again after a few seconds?The chances of your rememberingwould have beenverymuchgreater.

Now the secret: If you program your study correctly, then every time you revive anitem,youmakeithardertoforget.

Ifyoutestyourselfafterfiveseconds,therebyrevivingyourmemoryofthenewword,thenyoucanletitgoalittlelongerbeforerevivingitagain(perhapshalfaminute),still

longerthenexttime(perhapsoneandahalfminutes),andsoonuntilyourememberitindefinitely.

Thisprinciplecanbevisualizedonatimeline.InFigure1onthenextpage,thesolidlinesrepresentintervalsoftimeduringwhichyouarenotthinkingabouttheitembutarepayingattentiontoothertasks.

The principle of graduated interval recall says that if you refresh your memoryfrequentlyatfirst,youwillneedtodosolessandlessoftenastimepasses.FollowtheNaturalFrequenciesOne of the quickest and surest ways to pick up foreign vocabulary is through reading.There is a richness of association in reading, which aids the memory, and “organic”learningisfacilitatedbythenaturalprogressionofwordfrequencies.Figure1.GraduatedIntervalRecallSchedule

Asyouread,thewordsyounoticefirstareautomaticallythemostfrequent,mostusefulwords:theyappearmostoften.Thesearethewordstolearnfirst,skippingoverother,lessfrequentwordsforthemoment.

Whenyoufeelthatyouhaveseenacertainwordbeforeandaretiredofskippingoveritwithoutknowingitsmeaning,thenitistimetolookitup.Thewordmayalmostseemtothrustitselfupoffthepageatyou;thisisyoursignaltostopandlearnit,becauseatthatmomentyouhavestrong,positivemotivationthatwillhelpyoutoremember.

You may also have negative motivation. Thumbing a dictionary is mildly punitive,especially when you are caught up in reading an interesting page. You are obliged tointerruptyourenjoyment,laythebookdown,pickupadictionary,andperformatediousalphabeticsearch.Thedesire toavoidthis tiresomeprocesscanmotivateyoutoconfine

your searching towords you really need to know.Once having looked themup, it canmakeyoudeterminednottoforgetthemsoasnottohavetodoitagain.

Above all, reading is a pleasure. The delight of reading—in the original—a play byMolière,anovelbyDostoyevsky,anessaybyFreud,oranarticleonyourfavoritesubjectisone of the chief rewards for learning a language. It is also one of themost accessible.Reading, by far the simplest skill to master, is chiefly a matter of learning enoughvocabularyto“passthehump.”“PassingtheHump”LetustakeahypotheticalforeignpersonlearningtoreadEnglish.IfheusestheapproachIamrecommendinghere,andlearnsthemostfrequentwordsfirst,hewillfindthatafterlearningonlyonehundredwords,everysecondwordontheaverageprintedpagewilllookfamiliar to him. He will not, of course, be able to comprehend, but it is neverthelessimportanttorealizethattheonehundredcommonestEnglishwordsactuallyaccountfor50percentofthevocabularyinatypicalEnglishbook.

Lookbackatthefirstsentenceoftheprecedingparagraph,beginning“Letustake...”Itcontainselevenwords.Fiveofthem(us,take,a,to,read)areamongthetwohundredmost frequentEnglishwords.Threemore (let, person,English) are nearly as frequent;they figure among the five hundred commonest words. Two of the remaining words(learning, foreign) are only slightly less common; they are among the two thousandcommonest words. Only one word in that sentence is rare: “hypothetical.” In onefrequencystudyoffivemillionwordsofEnglishprose,“hypothetical”occurredonlyonce.

As our foreigner’s basic vocabulary increases, his reading comprehension mountssharply.Whenheknows fivehundredwords,hewillbeable to recognize two-thirdsofthe words in most written texts; when he knows a thousand words, he will recognizethree-fourths,andsoon,untilbythetimeheknowsfivethousandwords,fully98percentofprintedmatterwill lookfamiliartohim.Figure2belowillustrates therelationshipofwordfrequencytowordoccurrence.Figure2.RelationshipofWordFrequencytoWordOccurrence

However,ourhypothetical foreignerwill clearlynotbe reading fluentlyas longashestill must look up every fourth or fifth word he meets. Reading will not cease beingdrudgeryuntilhecanreadatleastafewsentenceswithoutreachingforadictionary.Whatwewanttoknowiswhenthiscrossoverpoint,this“hump,”maybereached.“Guessability”Englishwillbecomeeasyforourforeignertoreadwhenhecanguess,infer,orsomehowfigureout themeaningofmostnewwordshemeets from thewordshe alreadyknows:Whenhecanunderstand“occupation,”thoughhehasneverseenit,becauseheknowstheword “occupy.” When he can understand “leadership” because he knows “leader,” and“Grandma”becauseheknows“grandmother.”

Thisisthe“hump”inlearningforeignvocabulary.Afterpassingit,readinggrowstobeitsownreward,anditbecomesasimpleandpleasurableeventtoaddanoccasionalnewwordtoanalreadysubstantialvocabulary.

The “hump,” where new words grow “guessable,” is reached more quickly in somelanguagesthaninothers.Passingthe“Hump”inGermanWhen I was in high school, my friends and I went through a period of “vocabularybuilding.”WewouldspendpartofeacheveningporingoverbookslikeBuildYourWordPower,storingupesotericwordsto“stick”eachotherwithonthewaytoschoolthenextday.LikemostAmericans,Igrewupbelievingitwasimportanttohavealargevocabulary.

That iswhy Iwas astoundedwhen I learned, years later, that all educatedpeople inGermanyhaveessentiallythesamevocabulary.TheGermanlanguagebuildsitswordsoutofarelativelysmallstockofbasiccomponents.EveryGermanknowsthemallbythetimehefinisheshighschool;henceeveryGermanhighschoolgraduatehasessentiallyidentical

vocabulary.Theonlywayto“stick”aneducatedGermanonavocabularytestistoaskhimarchaicorforeignwords.

Thevocabulary“hump”isreachedearlierinGermanthaninmostotherlanguages.Thethousand most frequent German words actually comprise about 80 percent of mostreadingmatter;thesecondthousandwordsraisethisfigureto90percent.

Still,even90percent recognizabilitywouldnotbesufficient for fluent reading ifonehadtolookupeachunfamiliarword—oneinten.WhatmakesGermanrelativelyeasyisthatafteronehasmadetheinitialeffortoflearningthemostfrequentwords,newwordsbecomesohighly“guessable”thattheyareusuallyobviouswithoutconsultingadictionary.The “hump” in German is passed when one knows fifteen hundred to two thousandwords; andmanyof those,wemust remember, lookat least vaguely familiarbecauseoftheirsimilaritytoEnglishwords.Passingthe“Hump”inFrenchTheFrenchguessinggameinanearliersectiondemonstratedthatanAmericancanguessabout 30 percent of French words without having studied the language. As he studiesFrench, his guessing rate goes up in a steady progression (as shown inTable3 below),untilitreaches80percentandlevelsoffatthatrate.Table3.“Guessability”ofFrenchWords

NumberofWordsYouKnow PercentageofWordsYouCanGuess

500 35%

1,000 50%

2,000 60%

3,000 70%

4,000 75%

5,000 80%

A person can read French with ease as soon as he has a vocabulary of about threethousandwordsandcanguessthemeaningofunfamiliarwordswith70percentaccuracy.Oneisnotfreeofthedictionary,however,untilheknowsnearlyfivethousandwords,atwhichpointhestillmeetsasmallnumberofunfamiliarwordsbutcaneitherfigurethemout from the contextor, aswith thenamesof specific flowers andberries, for example,may be willing to let them go. However, that five thousand figure includes a heavyproportionofwords that are identical toEnglishwordsor similar enough that they arerecognizable and easily learned.As inGerman, the “hard-core” problem in learning toreadFrenchprobablycomesdowntolearningaboutfifteenhundredtotwothousandnon-cognatewords.

ThesepatternsofGermanandFrenchvocabularypointtocertaingeneralconclusionsabout learning vocabulary in the Teutonic and Romance languages: (1) Learn the

commonestwordsfirstbecausetheywillaccelerateyourguessingpower;(2)beginreadingassoonasyouhavelearnedfivehundredtoathousandcommonwords;(3)pickreadingmaterial that interests you strongly and continue to learn words following the naturalfrequencies.

Ifyouarewillingtomaketheinitialthrusttolearnafewhundredcommonwords,youcan be reading the foreign language, though slowly, within two to three months, andreadingwithreasonablefluencywithinsix.Thiscanbeyourfirstmajoraccomplishmentinlearningthe language,onethatpaysdividends inreadingpleasure,andhelpsboostyourvocabularyforlearningtospeakandwrite.Thisisnopipedream.Solidfactssaythatbyusingthisstrategy,whetherinaclassoronyourown,youcanbewellalonginaforeignlanguagesixmonthsfromtoday.

Conclusion

11.BeyondtheSpokenWord

TheSilentLanguage•NevertalktoaChinesebusinessmanwithyourhandsonyourhips.Hewillthinkyouareangryathim.•WhensittingwithMoslems,donotextendthesolesofyourfeet(orshoes)inthedirectionofothers.Itisveryimpolite.

•LatinAmericans like to talkup close, about a foot fromnose tonose,while anydistance less than two feetmakes aNorthAmerican think he is about to be kissed.When talking to aLatinAmerican, youmay findyourselfback-pedalingacrosstheroom,withhiminpursuit.

There is so much more to language than mere words. Each language has its ownrepertoryofgestures,facialexpressions,andbodymovements—wordlesssignsthatE.T.Hallhascalled“thesilentlanguage.”Whenyouareconversingwithnativespeakers,suchnon-verbalmeansofcommunicationareoftenvitally important.Ignoringthemisapttocauseyoutroubleingettingacrossyourmessage,astheexamplesjustgivenillustrate.Role-playingAnacquaintanceofminenamedJerrywas studyingTagalog inpreparation fora trip tothePhilippines.Italkedtohimaboutthe“silentlanguage,”andadvisedhimtoplaytheroleofaFilipinotothehiltduringhislessonbyusingFilipinogesturesandexpressionsaswellaswords.

Jerry’sstudygroupincludedfourotherstudentsandtwoFilipinowomenwhoservedas“nativeinformants.”ThegroupusedamethoddevelopedattheForeignServiceInstitute.Theylearnedconversationaldialoguesbyheart,thetechniquebeingtogoaroundthetablerepeatingonesentenceatatime,thentwosentences,andsoonuntileveryonehadmoreor less mastered it. The native informants were there to correct anyone whosepronunciationdroppedbelowanacceptablestandard.

On that particular day, the group was doing a new dialogue that everyone founddifficult.Certainsentenceswerelongandcomplicated,andnoneofthestudentswasabletocapturethenativeintonation.Asthedialoguewentroundthetable,Jerryrememberedmyadviceanddecidedtotryrole-playing.

Heclosedhiseyesandconcentratedon“psyching”himselfintotheskinofaFilipino.He imagined how hemight look: short andwiry, notmuch over five feet two, with ayelloworbrowncomplexion.HesawhimselfstandingonastreetcornerinManila;itwasveryhot;hewasdressedinaloosewhiteshirtandchinopants;theshirtwasstarchedandworn outside the trousers. Jerry had worked summers in a resort hotel with Filipinowaitersandheconjuredthemupinhismindtoaddrealismtothisportrayal.

Allthewhile,theconversationwasgoingaroundthetable,witheachpersonsayingtwosentences and receiving corrections.When Jerry’s turn came, he threw himself into therole. Tossing caution to thewinds, he blurted out the two sentences as he imagined aFilipinopersonwould.

Theinformantsstoppedthelesson,andforthefirsttimesaid,“There.Thatwasvery,verygood.Thatwasauthentic.”

Jerryhaddonesomethingbrave.Hehadcastoffhisownnaturalbehavior—hisidentity—and taken on that of a Filipino. In doing so, he had risked sounding and lookingridiculous.

That is thekindof riskyoushouldbeprepared to take ifyourobjective is to learnalanguage really well. Letting yourself play the role of a foreigner will improve yourperformance.Itmayhelpyoutohurdlepronunciationproblemsthathadbeengettingyoudownbefore.Italsowillenliventheclassforyou.Duringmomentsofboredom,youmaygradually imagine your new, foreign self in more detail: your job, your family, yourboyfriendorgirlfriend.

PsychologistCarlRogers,inhisinspiringbookFreedomtoLearn,says,“Ifindthatoneof thebest,butmostdifficult,ways formeto learn is todropmyowndefensiveness,atleasttemporarily,andtotrytounderstandthewayinwhichhisexperienceseemsandfeelsto the other person.” The willingness to risk dropping one’s own identity may be thecrucialfactorthatenablescertainpeopletolearnaforeignlanguagelikeanative.HandlingEmbarrassingMomentsThe “silent language” can produce some awkwardmomentswhen one first arrives in aforeigncountry.

MywifeandIwerelookingforanapartmentinAthens.Wehadbeenthereonlyafewdays andknewpitifully littleGreek.From the first day,wenoticed a peculiar reaction.WhenIwentuptoanewsstand,forexample,andaskedthemanfortheHeraldTribune,henoddedhisheadupanddown,apparentlyindicatingthathehadit,butmadenomoveto hand it over. After waiting for a fewminutes and receiving no newspaper, I finallywalkedaway,perplexed.

Atthefirstapartmentbuildingwewentto,werangthebell,thesuperintendentcameto thedoor, andwebashfully said the sentencewehad learnedbyheart: “Have you anapartmentforrent?”Themanlookedatusamiably—allGreeksarefriendlyandhelpfultoforeigners—andnoddedhisheadupanddown.Heseemedtobesayingthathehadanapartment for rent, andweexpected tobe invited in to inspect it.We stood lookingathim,hestoodlookingatus,allofusgettingmoreandmoreembarrassed,untilfinallywewalkedaway,utterlybewildered.

After three such incidentshappened in a singleday,we at last realized theproblem.WhenaGreeknodshisheadupanddown,hedoesnotmeanyes,hemeansno.

SayingnoisarichceremonyinGreek,withasetofhandandeyemovementsthatareinimitable and highly expressive. When a Greek person says no, he rolls his eyeballs

skyward,raiseshiseyebrows,clickshistongue,andliftsbothhands,palmsup.HeseemstobecallingontheOlympiangodstowitnesshowsorryheistohavetosaynoinsteadofyes.

OurembarrassmentinAthenswasmild,however,comparedwithwhatapersonfeelswhorealizesafterthefactthathehasutteredagigantichowlerandcannevertakeitback.This happened to an Israeli student shortly after his arrival inAustin,Texas,where heplannedtoattendtheuniversity.HehadjustcometoAmericaandhisEnglishwasweak.Onedayhenoticedthatabuttonhadfallenoffhisjacket.Tosewitbackon,heneededtoaskhislandladyforaneedleandthread.

Rehearsing the conversation in his mind, he was almost certain he knew the word“needle.”He did not know theword “thread,” butwas confident he could get the ideaacross.

Hewentdownstairsandknockedon the landlady’sdoor. “Come in,” said theelderlyTexaslady.“CanIhelpyou?”

“Yes,”repliedthestudent,“I’dlikeanoodleandrope.”KeepQuietTherearetimesinaforeigncountrywhenyoushouldsitthereandkeepyourmouthshut.

RhodawasspendingayearinGermanyaftergraduatingfromcollege.ShewantedtofindajobthatwouldbringherincontactwithGermans,andappliedtoteachEnglishinaprivatelanguageschool.HerGermanwasnotverygood,butthejobinterviewwouldbeinEnglish,orsosheassumed.

When she arrived, she was ushered into the office of the directress, an imposingRussian ladywho spokeGermanwith aheavy accent . . . andnoEnglish at all.Whileshakinghands,Rhodamutteredafewcarefullypreparedwordsofgreeting.Shesatdownopposite the directress, who, to Rhoda’s immense relief, launched into a lengthyexplanation of how she had founded the school and the kinds of students it attracted.Rhodasatandlistenedasthoughsheunderstood,noddingamiablyfromtimetotimetorenew the flow of words. After twentyminutes, a secretary interrupted to say that thedirectresswaswantedonthephone.ShequicklycomplimentedRhodaonherknowledgeofGerman,toldhershewashired,andshowedheroutoftheoffice.KeepTalkingTherealsomaybetimeswhenallyoucandoiskeeptalking.

AnolderwomanIknowtellsofthetimewhen,asayounggirl,shewasinvitedtovisitaforeignwarshipdockedinSanDiegoharbor.Herescortwasahandsomenavalofficer.Aftertheyhadtouredtheship,heinvitedherforadrinkintheofficers’lounge.Theysatthereformorethananhour,duringwhichtimeheneverceasedtalking.Hewentonandonaboutanythingthatcameintohismind,andthoughhewascharming,hiscompulsivetalkingfinallybegantoboreher.Sheinterruptedtocomplimenthim,somewhatironically,onhisfluentcommandofEnglish.Hemusthavesensedherannoyance,forheexplainedthathehadlearnedEnglishinhisnativecountry,Portugal,andhadneverspentanytime

in any English-speaking country.He talked a lot, he said, because he could speak thelanguagebutcouldnotunderstandit.Hefearedthatifhestoppedforevenamoment,shewouldsurelysaysomethingthathewouldnotunderstand.TakeItontheChinPractically everyone who has gone abroad has had embarrassing moments like those Irecounted.Myown“mostembarrassingmoment”remainswithmetothisday,thoughithappenedyearsago.

Iwastwenty,andgoingtoEuropeforthefirsttime.ThoughIhadtakenFrenchforthreeyearsinhighschool,Icouldnotspeakawordofit.

All during the eight-day boat trip, I practiced saying the first sentence I imagined IwouldneedwhenIarrivedinParis—theaddressofthehotelwhereIwasgoingtostay.Irepeatedittomyselfoverandover:Deuxcentvingt-cinqrueSaint-Jacques(“225rueSaint-Jacques”).

Whentheboatlanded,thingswentnearlyasIhadimagined.WedockedatLeHavreand took theboat-train toParis, arrivingat theSaint-Lazare railroad station. I foundaline of peoplewaiting for taxis, and joined themwithmybaggage.Waitingmy turn, Ipracticedmyprecioussentence.

At lastmy turn came. I climbed into the backseat of the taxi, thedriver turned andlookedatmeoverhisshoulder,andIdeliveredmywell-rehearsedline:Deuxcentvingt-cinqrueSaint-Jacques.

Heshowednosignofcomprehending.Instead,heaskedmeinEnglish,withabroadFrenchaccent,“Whairedoyouweeshtogo,monsieur?”

Sheepishly,ItoldhimtheaddressinEnglishandsatback,toomiserabletoenjoymyfirstglimpsesofParis.KeepingtheWaitressWaitingSometimespeoplecreatetheirownproblems.

Charles and Amy walked into a sweetshop in Salzburg, Austria, to have some icecream. The shop was located near the Festival Hall, and Charles noticed a display ofprograms on thewall autographed by singers and conductors from the SalzburgMusicFestival.Whilehedetouredtoexaminethem,thewaitressbehindthecounterlookedupexpectantly,preparedtotaketheirorder.

Amyproddedherhusbandandsaidinalowvoice,“She’swaiting.”Charles was annoyed that his wife seemedmore concerned about the waitress than

abouthis interests.He lashedout, too loudly forpoliteness, “Thehellwithher, letherwait,”andcontinuedinspectingthemusicprograms.

Amystompedoutoftheshop,furiouswithhimforembarrassingherinpublic.SoonCharlesfollowed,furiouswithherforinsistingthathedothe“right”thingratherthanthe

thing that interested him. After about half an hour they patched up the quarrel andcontinuedtheirvisittoSalzburg.

SoonitwasdinnertimeandtheywenttoatypicalAustrianrestaurant,theirargumentnotentirelyforgotten.Thewaitressbroughtthemenu,thentookoutherpadandpencil,obviouslywaitingforthemtoorder.Amyimmediatelybeganfeelingawkward.Withouttakingtimetostudythemenu,sheorderedthefirstthingthatcaughthereye.Thensheregrettedit,soCharlescalledthewaitressbackandtoldhertheywerenotsurewhattheywanted.Again thewaitress stood there,waiting for them tomakeup theirminds.Andagainthepressurewassuchthattheycouldnotstudythemenubutplacedaquickorder,justtorelievethetension.

The waitress was a simple person from an Austrian village. There was nothingimposingabouther,norhadshereallydoneanythingotherthangivepromptservice.Yetherpresencehadmadethemacutelyuncomfortableandnearlyrekindledanargumentthatwouldhavespoiledtheirdinner.

Howhadshegottenthepowertodoallthis?Evidently,theygaveittoher.Bybelievingthat they had to order quickly and dare not keep herwaiting, they had allowed her totyrannizethemthoughthatwasnotherintentionintheleast.

Everyonewho goes abroad inevitably finds himself in such situations and should bearmedinadvancetocopewiththem.Oneshouldlearnhowtosay,“I’mnotreadytoorderyet,” or “Come back in five minutes,” or whatever ploy one favors. One should armoneself,too,withanattitude—thatonewillremainincommandofthesituationandnotsuccumb to embarrassment despite the psychological disadvantage of being a stutteringforeigner.

One easily feels like an underdog in a foreign country. It is their country and theirlanguage, andoneworries at every turn about inadvertently committing some rudeness.This feeling is inescapable, and it is agood idea toconsciouslybuilddefensesagainst itbeforegoingabroad.PickingUpCluesAGreektravelagentinNewYorkoncesaidtomeinthecourseofaconversation,“TherewillbetoomanypeopleinGreecethissummer.”

I thought thatwas anodd remark for a travel agent tomake, especially ashe said itwithapleasedsmile,obviouslyhappythathisbusinesswasprospering.

Whathemeantwas,“TherewillbemanypeopleinGreecethissummer.”TheGreeklanguagemakesnodistinctionbetween“many”and“toomany”; thewordpollihasbothmeanings.

I wanted to give him an opportunity to improve his English, so I deliberatelyresponded with puzzlement. I asked, “How can there be too many, since the touristbusinesshelpstheGreekeconomy?”

HehadbeeninbusinessinNewYorkforfouryears.Probablyothershadreactedinapuzzled way before. But he had not picked up their clues and did not pick up mine.

Perhapshis“organic”learningofEnglishwasnotyetreadytoperceivethiserror.OrelsehisEnglishhadleveledoutonaplateauwherefurtherprogresswasimprobable.

Certain clues simply cannot be ignored, however.My neighbor once took a trip toSpain.Heplannedtogoboarhunting,whichrequiredanofficialpermitfromaministryinMadrid. In the course of obtaining it, he was sent from one office to another andanother. In each he said the same sentence, painstakingly constructed from a pocketdictionary,andeachtimewasmetbyagaleoflaughter.Afterthethirdorfourthtime,hefinally asked anEnglish-speaking personwhatwaswrong.He found out thatwhile heintendedtosay,“Iwanttohuntapig”(Quierocazaruncerdo),hehadbeensaying,“Iwanttomarry[casar]apig”instead.

Themoral is:Whenastrangereactionfollowssomethingyouhavesaid,alwaystrackdown the reason.Never let a chancegoby to correct awronghabit; thesemistakes arefiniteinnumberanditispossibletocorrectthemall.GettingtoKnowYouOnereason,perhapsthebiggest,whypeopletraveltoforeigncountriesisthattheywanttounderstandthemselvesbetterthoughunderstandingothers.Wemayfindoutwhoweareandhowwegottobethatwaybyobservingpeoplewhohavebeenmoldeddifferentlybyanotherenvironment.Thecontractissharpestwherethecountry’ssocialandpoliticalsystemdepartsmostfromourown.FormanyAmericans,thisisthefascinationofatriptoRussia.

FredJenkins,ajuniorexecutiveinanoilcompany,wasvisitingRussiaonatwenty-daytour.HehadstudiedRussianforayearincollege,and,thoughhecouldnotholdafluentconversation,hecouldmanagetoaskforborscht,buses,andthebathroom.Thisgavehimconfidenceenoughtogoofffromthegroup.Hewantedto“getafeel”forthecountryandthepeople.

He was first surprised, then offended by the rudeness he sometimes encountered.Whenhewenttothepostofficetomailapackage,heheldouthispackageandaskedifhecouldmailit.TheanswerwasanabruptNyet!(No!).Noexplanation;noadviceonhowtogoaboutit.JustNyet!Withascowl.

Laterthatdayhewantedaglassoftea.Itwasnearlyclosingtimeatthetearoom,andalarge, buxomwoman stood blocking the door. Fred asked her in brokenRussian if hecouldgoinforaglassoftea,promisingtodrinkitquicklyandleave.Heranswer,inanunequivocaltoneofvoice,wasNyet.

UptothenFredhadacceptedtheserebuffsinthepolite,submissivemanneratravelertendstoadoptinaforeigncountrytoavoidgivingoffense.Buthewasgrowingangryatbeingshoutedatandpushedaround.Hedecidedtoseewhatwouldhappenifhereturnedthistreatmentinkind.

Hewentbacktothetearoom,wherethewomanwasstillguardingthedoor.Againheasked ifhe couldhave aglassof tea, andagainwasglaredat and toldNyet.This time,insteadofgoingaway,hebeganarguinginhaltingbutaggressiveRussian,reinforcedby

vigorousgestures.Heshoutedthatthiswasafinewaytotreatavisitor,thatallhewantedwasaglassofteaandwouldnotholduptheirclosingtime,andsoon.Afteramoment’shesitation, thewoman steppedasideand letFred squeezebyher into the tearoom.Sheturnedandcalledoverhershouldertothewaitress(inRussian),“Givehimaglassoftea.”DuringtheremainderofhisstayinRussia,FredmadeitapointtoarguewitheveryNyet,andwasamazedhowoftenhegotwhathewanted.

Idonot,ofcourse,recommenddeliberaterudeness,butIdosuggestthatapersonwhogoesabroadshouldbepreparedtotryoutdifferentmodesofbehaviorininteractingwithnativepeople.Theirreactionswillnotalwaysbethoseweexpect,andacertainamountoffumbling is inevitable aswe search for communication.Quiteoften, as in the followingincident,theresultmaybeawarmexperience,perhapsevenacherishedmemory.

TheIstanbulHiltonisthefavoritestoppingplaceformanyAmericansvisitingTurkey.Butmywife,Beverly,andIwantedtogettoknowthecityofIstanbul,andthoughtwemightdobetterelsewhere.Whenwearrivedattherailroadstation,insteadofheadingfortheHiltoninataxi,wecheckedourbaggageandsetoffonfootintheteemingportareanearthestationtolookforasuitablehotel.

Wetookthewider,moreeasilypassablestreets,andsawmanyunusualsights.Ononebackstreet,arowofmenweresittingonacurboutsideabuilding.Eachonehadasaddlestrapped to his back. They were porters waiting for business, the human equivalent ofpickup trucks. Using the saddles, they could carry towering piles of packages andmerchandise,mountainousloadsthatseemedreadytocascadedownatanymoment.

Wewerestillmusingovertheimplicationsofusingmenasbeastsofburden,whenwecameuponahotelthatlookedquitenew.Wewentintoaskaboutaroom.Theygaveusthe pick of the house; the hotel had just opened and the first guests, a busload ofYugoslavian tourists,werenot scheduled to arrive for aweek.We saidwewould like aviewoftheBosphorus,andwereassignedaroomonthetopfloor,thefifth.

The entire personnel of the hotel appeared to consist of the manager, who couldunderstandalittleFrench,andaporter,whospokeonlyTurkish.

Withmanysmilesandcourteousgestures,theportertookusupintheelevator,showedus to our room, and left. The room turned out to be clean and modern, and it hadwindowsoneveryside.Morewindows,infact,thanwehadcountedon,foralthoughtheydidprovidea lovelyviewof theBosphorus, theyopenedoutdirectlyontocorridorsandrooftopsthattous,strangersinIstanbul,lookedanythingbutsafe.Wefelt,especiallyafterdark,thatwewerelivingonasmallairyislandsurroundedbydangers.

Whilepreparingforbed,wediscoveredthatthehotwaterhadnotyetbeenturnedoninthehotel,pendingthearrivaloftheYugoslavs.Wequicklyadjustedtowashingincoldwater,butthenextmorning,shavingprovedtobeaproblem.Ipickedupthetelephone—duringthefirst,uneasynight,thetelephonehadcometoseemlikeouronlylinkwiththeoutsideworld—andwhen theporter answered, I asked for somehotwater.No reply. Itried French: eau chaude. Still no answer. Then I commenced thumbing the section of“usefulwords andphrases” inmyguidebookwithonehand,while juggling the receiver

withtheother,andmakingoccasionalgruntingsoundstokeeptheporterfromhangingup.

Accordingtotheguidebook,thewordfor“hot”wassicakandthewordfor“water”wassu.IrememberedhavingreadsomewherethatthelettercispronouncedlikejinTurkish,so I said to theporter,Su sijak!Then the lightbulb lit up, and in a triumphof suddencomprehension,hesaid,Sijaksu!Sijaksu!Irushedtogivehimconfirmation:Yes,yes,yes,oui,oui,oui.HethensaidsomethinginTurkish,whichIhopefullytooktomeanthathewasgoingtobringmehotwater,andhungup.

Aboutfiveminuteslater,theelevatordoorclankedandweheardfootstepsapproachingour fishbowlroom.Iwasat thedoorbeforeheknocked.Theporter, stillbeamingwiththe joy of understandingmy request, was carrying a smallmetal teapot with a wisp ofsteamrisingfromitsspout.Itwasonlya fractionofthequantityofwaterIwouldhaveliked,butitseemedinfinitelyprecioustome.Ibeamedbackathim,gavehimatip,andclosedthedoor.

As I stood therewith the tiny teapotofwater, I realized that something specialhadtakenplacebetweentheporterandme.Throughourstruggletocommunicate,wehadfeltarushofgoodfellowshipforeachother.

Thisfeelinglastedfortheremainderofourfive-daystay.EachmorningIwouldpickup the telephone and say, with growing confidence, Sijak su. And the response wouldcome,warmandreassuring,Sijaksu.Fiveminuteslater,thetinyteapotwouldbebroughttomydoor.Whenweleftthehotel,theporterandIshookhandswithsincereaffection.Wehadsharedanexperience.

AnswerKeyforQuizon“Guessable”FrenchWords(page11)

1 2 3 4 5

brother course happiness existence dayafter

garden plan guard detail will

sentiment role value anger walk

scene badluck habit drawingroom madam

situation envy blood newspaper crowd

tree place color flower boy

impression king subject mouth gesture

tear frank title rapport,relationship

society

taste field care faith room

law importance fault,lack group joy

Appendix1LanguagesoftheWorld

Inthislist,theworldisdividedintofiveregions:Africa,America,Europe,NearEast,andFar East.Within each region, countries are listed alphabetically with their capitals. Inmany countries, the languages spoken inmajor cities other than the capital differ fromthoseusedinthecapital.Whenthisisthecase,theadditionalinformationforthesecitiesisalsoprovided.

Principal languages are listed in the second column.These are indigenous languages,eitherofficialornonofficial,usedbyasignificantsegmentofthepopulation.

Otherlanguagesare listedinthethirdcolumn.Theseareeithernon-indigenousworldlanguagesusedwidelybythegovernmentandineducatedcirclesoranylanguagesotherthanaprincipal language that isuseful in communicatingwitha substantial segmentofthepopulationorwithasignificantminoritygroup.StylewithinEntriesParentheses indicate regional variants, which may or may not be mutually intelligible.Examples:Chinese(Mandarin),Chinese(Cantonese).

Aslashindicatesthattwodifferentnamesareusedforthesamelanguage.Ahyphendistinguishesmutuallyintelligiblevariants.Examples:Serbo-Croatian;Zulu-

Xhosa.Arabic,whichhasmanyregionalvariations,somemutuallyintelligibleandsomenot,is

dividedintoEasternandWestern.Chinese is divided into six regional variations: Amoy-Swatow, Cantonese, Fuchow,

Hakka,Mandarin,andWu.Whiletheselanguagesarenotmutuallyintelligibleinspokenform,speakerscancommunicateinwritingowingtotheircommonpictographicwritingsystem.1

Country&City PrincipalLanguages OtherLanguages

TheAmericas

AntiguaSt.John’s

English

Argentina

BuenosAires Spanish Italian

BahamasNassau

English

BarbadosBridgetown

English

Belize

Belmopan EnglishSpanish

Mayan(Yucatec)

BermudaHamilton

English

Bolivia

LaPaz Spanish AymaraQuechua

BrazilBrasília

Portuguese

BritishVirginIslandsRoadTown

English

Canada

Ottawa English French

Montréal FrenchEnglish

Québec French English

CaymanIslandsGeorgetown

English

Chile

Santiago Spanish

Concepción Spanish AraucanianGerman

ColombiaBogotá

Spanish

CostaRicaSanJosé

Spanish

Cuba

Havana

Spanish

Dominica

Roseau EnglishFrenchPatois

DominicanRepublicSantoDomingo

Spanish

Ecuador

Quito Spanish Quechua

ElSalvadorSanSalvador

Spanish

FalklandIslandsStanley

English

FrenchGuiana

Cayenne FrenchFrenchCreole

Grenada

St.George’s EnglishFrenchPatois

Guadeloupe

Basse-Terre FrenchFrenchCreole

Guatemala

Guatemala Spanish QuicheKakchikel

MamKekchi

Guyana

Georgetown English SpanishHindi

Urdu

Haiti

Port-au-Prince French

HaitianCreole

HondurasTegucigalpa

Spanish

JamaicaKingston

English

Martinique

Fort-de-France FrenchFrenchCreole

MexicoMexicoCity

Spanish

MontserratPlymouth

English

NetherlandsAntilles

Willemstad DutchPapiamento

SpanishEnglish

NicaraguaManagua

Spanish

Panamá

Panamá Spanish English

Paraguay

Asunción SpanishGuaraní

Peru

Lima Spanish Quechua

PuertoRico

SanJuan SpanishEnglish

St.Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla

Basseterre English

St.Lucia

Castries English

FrenchPatois

St.Pierre&MiquelonSt.Pierre

French

St.VincentKingstown

English

Suriname

Paramaribo SrananHindi

JavaneseDutch

EnglishSpanish

Trinidad&TobagoPort-of-Spain

English

Hindi

Turks&CaicosIslandsGrandTurk

English

UnitedStates

Washington,D.C. English Spanish

Uruguay

Montevideo Spanish ItalianPortuguese

VenezuelaCaracas

Spanish

Europe

AlbaniaTirana

Albanian

AndorraAndorralaVella

Catalan

Austria

Vienna German Serbo-CroatianSlovak

HungarianCzech

Azores

PontaDelgada

Portuguese

Belgium

Brussels Dutch-FlemishFrench

GermanItalian

Bulgaria

Sofia Bulgarian TurkishRomany

Czechoslovakia

Prague Czech SlovakGerman

Russian

Bratislava Slovak CzechGerman

HungarianRomany

Denmark

Copenhagen Danish GermanEnglish

EnglandLondon

England

Finland

Helsinki Finnish SwedishEnglish

France

Paris French 2

Germany,East(GermanDemocraticRepublic)

EastBerlin German Polish

Germany,West(GermanFederalRepublic)

Bonn German *

Gibraltar

Gibraltar English

Spanish

Greece

Athens Greek French

Greenland

Godthaab DanishGreenlandic

Hungary

Budapest Hungarian GermanSlovak

Iceland

Reykjavik Icelandic DanishNorwegian

SwedishEnglish

German

Ireland

Dublin EnglishGaelic

ItalyRome

Italian

LiechtensteinVaduz

German

Luxembourg

Luxembourg FrenchGerman

*

Malta

Valletta MalteseEnglish

Italian

Monaco

Monaco-Ville FrenchMonégasque

TheNetherlands

Amsterdam Dutch English

NorthernIrelandBelfast

English

Norway

Oslo Norwegian English

Poland

Warsaw Polish

Poznan Polish German

PortugalLisbon

Portuguese

Romania

Bucharest Romanian FrenchGerman

Hungarian

SanMarinoSanMarino

Italian

ScotlandEdinburgh

English

Gaelic

Spain

Madrid Spanish

Barcelona SpanishCatalan

Bilbao Spanish Basque

Sweden

Stockholm Swedish FinnishEnglish

Switzerland

Bern German(Swiss) GermanFrench

Italian

Geneva French German

Italian

Zurich German(Swiss) GermanFrench

Italian

UnionofSovietSocialistRepublics(USSR)3

ArmenianSSR Russian

(Yerevan) Armenian(Eastern)

AzerbaijanSSR Russian Armenian(Eastern)

(Baku) Azerbaijani

ByelorussianSSR Russian Polish

(Minsk) Byelorussian

EstonianSSR Russian

(Tallin) Estonian

GeorgianSSR Russian Armenian(Eastern)

(Tbilisi) Georgian

KazakhSSR Russian Ukrainian

(Alma-Ata) Kazakh

KirgizSSR Russian Ukrainian

(Frunze) Kirgiz

LatvianSSR Russian

(Riga) Latvian

LithuanianSSR Russian Polish

(Vilnius) Lithuanian

MoldavianSSR Russian Ukrainian

(Kishinev) Moldavian

RussianSFSR(Moscow)

Russian Armenian(Eastern)Ukrainian

Tatar

TadzhikSSR Russian Uzbek

(Dushanbe) Persian(Tadzhik)

TurkmenSSR Russian Uzbek

(Ashkhabad) Turkomen

UkranianSSR Russian

(Kiev) Ukranian

UzbekSSR Russian

(Tashkent) Uzbec

VaticanCity Italian

Wales

Cardiff EnglishWelsh

Yugoslavia

Belgrade Serbo-Croatian FrenchGerman

MacedonianSlovenian

AlbanianHungarian

NearEast

Afghanistan

Kabul Persian(Afghan)Pashto

FrenchGerman

Uzbek

BahrainManama

Arabic(Eastern)

BangladeshDacca

Bengali

English

BhutanThimbu

Tibetan

BritishIndianOcean

Territory English

French

FrenchCreole

Ceylon(seeSriLanka)

Cyprus

Nicosia GreekTurkish

English

Egypt

Cairo Arabic(Eastern) EnglishFrench

Alexandria Arabic(Eastern) FrenchGreek

India

NewDelhi Hindi UrduPanjabi/Punjabi

English

Bombay MarathiGujarati

Hindi

EnglishUrdu

Calcutta BengaliHindi

EnglishOriya

Assamese

Madras Tamil EnglishTelugu

MalayalamKannada

Iran

Tehran Persian(Iranian) French

Khorramshahr Persian(Iranian)Arabic(Eastern)

French

Tabriz Persian(Iranian)Azerbaijani

KurdishFrench

RussianArmenian(Eastern)

Iraq

Baghdad Arabic(Eastern) Kurdish

Israel

Jerusalem HebrewArabic(Eastern)

EnglishFrench

German

TelAviv Hebrew Arabic(Eastern)German

RussianFrench

YiddishJudeo-Spanish

English

JordanAmman

Arabic(Eastern)

KuwaitKuwait

Arabic(Eastern)

Persian(Iranian)

Lebanon

Beirut Arabic(Eastern) FrenchArmenian(Western)

MaldiveIslandsMalé

Maldivian

Nepal

Kathmandu Nepali EnglishHindi

BhojpuriNewari

OmanMuscat

Arabic(Eastern)

Pakistan

Islamabad UrduPanjabi/Punjabi

EnglishLahnda

Pashto

Lahore UrduPanjabi/Punjabi

EnglishLahnda

Karachi Urdu

Sindhi

English

Gujarati

QatarDoha

Arabic(Eastern)

SaudiArabiaJidda

Arabic(Eastern)

SouthernYemen

Aden Arabic(Eastern) HindiSomali

English

SriLanka(Ceylon)

Colombo Sinhala TamilEnglish

Syria

Damascus Arabic(Eastern) FrenchEnglish

Aleppo Arabic(Eastern) FrenchTurkish

Armenian(Western)Kurdish

Turkey

Ankara Turkish French

Adana Turkish Arabic(Eastern)Kurdish

Istanbul Turkish FrenchArmenian(Western)

GreekJudeo-Spanish

UnitedArabEmirates

AbuDhabi Arabic(Eastern)

YemenSanaa

Arabic(Eastern)

FarEast

AmericanSamoa

PagoPago EnglishSamoan

AustraliaCanberra

English

Brunei

BandarSeriBegawan

Malay Chinese(Hakka)English

Iban

Burma

Rangoon Burmese Chinese(Amoy)Chinese(Cantonese)

Chinese(Mandarin)Karen(Sgaw)

Karen(Pwo)

Cambodia(seeKampuchea)

China(People’sRepublicofChina)

Beijing(Peking) Chinese(Mandarin)

Shanghai Chinese(Mandarin)Chinese(Wu)

Chinese(Fuchow)

Guangzhou Chinese(Mandarin) Chinese(Hakka)

(Canton) Chinese(Cantonese) Chinese(Swatow)

Nanning Chinese(Mandarin)Chinese(Cantonese)

Zhuang

Yao

China,Nationalist(Taiwan)

Taipei Chinese(Mandarin)Chinese(Amoy)

Chinese(Hakka)Chinese(Fuchow)

Fiji

Suva FijianHindi

EnglishFrench

Tamil

FrenchPolynesia

Papeete TahitianFrench

GilbertIslands

Tarawa GilberteseEnglish

Guam

Agagna EnglishChamorro

Ilocano

HongKong Chinese(Cantonese) Chinese(Mandarin)English

Indonesia

Jakarta Indonesian Chinese(Amoy)Sundanese

JavaneseDutch

Surabaya IndonesianJavanese

MadureseChinese(Amoy)

Japan

Tokyo Japanese

Kampuchea(Cambodia)

PhnomPenh Cambodian FrenchChinese(Cantonese)

Chinese(Swatow)Vietnamese

Korea,North(DemocraticPeople’sRepublicofKorea)Pyongyang

Korean

Korea,South(RepublicofKorea)Seoul

Korean

Laos

Vientiane Lao FrenchChinese(Cantonese)

Chinese(Swatow)

Vietnamese

Macao

MacaoCity PortugueseChinese(Cantonese)

Malaysia

KualaLumpur Malay Chinese(Amoy)Chinese(Hakka)

Chinese(Cantonese)Chinese(Mandarin)

Chinese(Fuchow)English

TamilJavanese

Kuching MalayChinese(Hakka)

Chinese(Fuchow)

EnglishChinese(Cantonese)

Chinese(Mandarin)Iban

LandDyak

Mongolia

UlanBator KhalkhaMongolian Russian

Nauru

Nauru NauruanEnglish

NewCaledoniaNouméa

French

NewHebrides

Vila EnglishFrench

PidginEnglish

NewZealandWellington

English

Maori

NorthernMarianasSaipan

Chamorro

English

OkinawaNaha

Japanese

English

Ryukyuan

PapuaNewGuinea

PortMoresby EnglishPidginEnglish

Motu

ThePhilippines

QuezonCity Pilipino/Tagalog EnglishSpanish

IlocanoVisayan(Cebuano)

Chinese(Amoy)Chinese(Mandarin)

PitcairnIslands English

Singapore

Singapore MalayChinese(Amoy-Swatow)

Chinese(Cantonese)

EnglishChinese(Mandarin)

Chinese(Hakka)Tamil

SolomanIslands

Honiara,Guadalcanal

EnglishPidginEnglish

ThailandBangkok

Thai

Chinese(Swatow)

Tonga

Nuku’alofa TonganEnglish

TrustTerritoryofthePacificIslands English TrukeseandeightotherMicronesianlanguages

Tuvalu

Funafuti ElliceanPolynesian EnglishSamoan

Vietnam

Hanoi Vietnamese Chinese(Mandarin)Chinese(Cantonese)

Saigon(HoChiMinhCity) Vietnamese Chinese(Cantonese)

FrenchCambodian

Wallis&FutunaIslandsMata-Utu

French

WesternSamoa

Apia SamoanEnglish

Africa

Algeria

Algiers Arabic(Western) FrenchBerber(Kabyle)

Angola

Luanda Kimbundu PortugueseUmbundu

ChokweKikongo

Benin(Dahomey)

PortoNovo Fon FrenchYoruba

BotswanaGaberone

Tswana/Setswana

English

Burundi

Bujumbura Kirundi/Rundi FrenchKinyarwanda

Swahili/Kiswahili

Cameroon

Yaoundé EwondoWescos/English

Creole

FrenchEnglish

DualaFang-Bulu

Fula

CapeVerdeIslands

Praia PortuguesePortugueseCreole

CentralAfricanRepublic

Bangui SangoBanda

Gbaya

French

Chad

N’Djamena Arabic(Eastern)

FrenchSara

Comoros

Moroni FrenchSwahili/Kiswahili

Malagasy

Congo

Brazzaville LingalaKituba/Munukutuba

FrenchKikongo

Teke

Congo(Kinshasa)(seeZaire)

Dahomey(seeBenin)

Djibouti

Djibouti AfarSomali

FrenchArabic(Eastern)

EquatorialGuinea

Malabo Fang SpanishBubi

Yoruba

Ethiopia

AddisAbaba Amharic EnglishOromo/Galla

Italian

Asmara TigrinyaArabic(Eastern)

AmharicItalian

Tigre

Gabon

Libreville Fang-Bulu French

TheGambia

Banjul Mandingo(Malinke) FulaEnglish

Wolof

Ghana

Accra Akan(Twi)Ga

EnglishEwe

Hausa

Guinea

Conakry SusuMandingo(Malinke)

Fula

French

Guinea-Bissau

Bissau PortugueseBalante

Fula

IvoryCoast

Abidjan Baule FrenchMandingo(Dioula)

Kenya

Nairobi Swahili/KiswahiliKikuyu

EnglishLuo

MasaiKamba

Mombasa Swahili/Kiswahili EnglishArabic(Eastern)

LesothoMaseru

Sotho/Sesotho

English

Liberia

Monrovia English Bassa

PidginEnglish Vai

Kpelle

Libya

Tripoli Arabic(Western) ItalianBerber(DjebelNafusi)

Madagascar

Antananarivo Malagasy French

Malawi

Lilongwe Chichewa/Chinyanja/

Nyanja

EnglishYao

Tumbuka

Mali

Bamako Mandingo(Bambara) FrenchFula/Toucouleur

Mauritania

Nouakchott Arabic(Western) FrenchFula

WolofBerber(Zenaga)

Mauritius

Port-Louis MauritiusCreole EnglishFrench

Bhojpuri

Morocco

Rabat Arabic(Western) FrenchBerber(Tamazight)

Tangier Arabic(Western) Berber(Rif)French

Spanish

Mozambique

Maputo Tsonga PortugueseTshwa

Beira Chichewa/ Portuguese

Chinyanja/

NyanjaShona

Mozambique Makua PortugueseSwahili/Kiswahili

Namibia

Windhoek AfrikaansEnglish

GermanOvambo

Herero

Niger

Niamey HausaDjerma-Songhai

FulaFrench

Tamashek

Nigeria

Lagos YorubaPidginEnglish

EnglishHausa

Igbo

Ibadan Yoruba HausaEnglish

Enugu Igbo EnglishHausa

EfikIjaw

Kano Hausa EnglishFula

Kanuri

RepublicofSouthAfrica

Capetown Afrikaans Zulu-Xhosa

Pretoria AfrikaansEnglish

Zulu-XhosaSotho-Sesotho

Tswana/SetswanaTsonga

Durban EnglishAfrikaans

Zulu-XhosaGujarati

Réunion

Saint-Denis FrenchRéunionCreole

Rwanda

Kigali Kinyarwanda Kirundi/RundiSwahili/Kiswahili

French

SaintHelenaJamestown

English

SãoTomé&Príncipe

SãoTomé PortuguesePortugueseCreole

Sénégal

Dakar Wolof FrenchFula/Toucouleur

SererMandingo(Malinke)

DiolaSoninke

Arabic(Western)

Seychelles

Victoria EnglishFrench

FrenchCreole

SierraLeone

Freetown Krio EnglishMende

Temne

SomaliDemocraticRepublic

Mogadishu Somali ItalianArabic(Eastern)

English

Sudan

Khartoum Arabic(Eastern) NubianBeja

English

Juba EnglishArabic(Eastern)

PidginArabicBari

DinkaNuer

ZandeToposa

LotuhoShilluk

Swaziland

Mbabane Swati/Siswati EnglishZulu-Xhosa

Afrikaans

Tanzania

DaresSalaam Swahili/Kiswahili Nyamwezi-SukumaGujarati

English

Togo

Lomé Ewe FrenchKabre

Tunisia

Tunis Arabic(Western) French

Uganda

Kampala Luganda/Ganda EnglishSwahili/Kiswahili

Acholi

UpperVolta

Ouagadougou Moré Mandingo(Bambara)French

Fula

Zaire

Kinshasa LingalaKituba/Munukutuba

FrenchKikongo

Bukuvu Swahili/KiswahiliAmashi

French

Lubumbashi Swahili/Kiswahili French

Bemba/Cibemba

LundaLuba(Katanga)

Zambia

Lusaka Chichewa/Chinyanja/

NyanjaBemba/Cibemba

EnglishTonga/Citonga

Zimbabwe

Salisbury Shona EnglishNdebele

Chichewa/Chinyanja/Nyanja

1.HelpinupdatingwasprovidedbyWilliamW.GageoftheCenterforAppliedLinguistics,Washington,D.C.2. Immigrant workers are a significant part of the population. The languages represented may vary over the years.Currently, inParis,Spanish,Portuguese, Italian, andArabic (Western) are important. InGermany, Italian,Spanish,Greek,Turkish,andSerbo-Croatianarefound.InLuxembourg,Portugueseispredominant.

3.TheentriesfortheUSSRarelistedalphabeticallybyrepublicwiththecapitalcityoftherepublicinparentheses.

Appendix2PimsleurLanguagePrograms&DateFirst

Published

Greek 1963

French 1964

LatinAmericanSpanish 1966

German 1967

Twi 1971

Hebrew 1982

Russian 1984

BrazilianPortuguese 1990

EasternArabic 1991

EnglishforSpanish 1991

MandarinChinese 1991

Czech 1993

Dutch 1993

Ukrainian 1993

Albanian 1994

Ojibwe 1994

EuropeanPortuguese 1994

HaitianCreole 1995

Italian 1995

Japanese 1995

SwissGerman 1995

Vietnamese 1995

EasternArmenian 1996

CantoneseChinese 1996

Korean 1996

Lithuanian 1996

Polish 1996

EgyptianArabic 1997

WesternArmenian 1997

Croatian 1999

Danish 1999

Hindi 1999

Indonesian 1999

Irish 1999

Norwegian 1999

Swedish 1999

Romanian 2000

Swahili 2000

Thai 2000

FarsiPersian 2002

Turkish 2006

Tagalog 2007

Hungarian 2008

DariPersian 2009

Pashto 2010

Urdu 2010

ModernStandardArabic 2012

Finnish 2012

Punjabi 2012

CastilianSpanish 2012

PimsleurLanguageProgramsEnglishasaSecondLanguage

EnglishforSpanishSpeakers 1991

EnglishforJapaneseSpeakers 1994

EnglishforMandarinChineseSpeakers 1996

EnglishforFrenchSpeakers 1999

EnglishforHindiSpeakers 1999

EnglishforItalianSpeakers 1999

EnglishforKoreanSpeakers 1999

EnglishforRussianSpeakers 1999

EnglishforCantoneseChineseSpeakers 2000

EnglishforGermanSpeakers 2000

EnglishforArabicSpeakers 2001

EnglishforPortugueseSpeakers 2001

EnglishforVietnameseSpeakers 2003

EnglishforHaitianSpeakers 2004

EnglishforFarsiPersianSpeakers 2006

Paul Pimsleur (October 17, 1927-June 22, 1976) was a scholar in the field of languageteaching, testing, and applied linguistics. He developed the Pimsleur language learningsystem,which, alongwith hismany publications, had a significant effect upon theories oflanguagelearningandteaching.Dr.Pimsleurreceivedabachelor’sdegreefromCityCollegeofNewYork,aswellasamaster’sdegree inpsychological statisticsandaPh.D. inFrench,bothfromColumbiaUniversity.HeheldpositionsatUCLA;OhioStateUniversity,wherehecreatedtheListeningCenter,auniquelanguagelaboratory;andStateUniversityofNewYorkatAlbany.HewasaFulbrightlecturerandafoundingmemberoftheAmericanCouncilontheTeachingofForeignLanguages(ACTFL).

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SourcesUsedfor“LanguagesoftheWorld”

Almanac Publications. The Official Associated Press Almanac. New York: AlmanacPublications,1973.

AtlasNarodovMira (Atlas ofPeoples of theWorld).Moscow:AcademyofSciences ofUSSR,1964.

British Information Services. Britain’s Associated States and Dependencies. Norwich,England:PageBros.Ltd.,1972.

Correspondence dated April 27, 1973, with Alain Chaillou, Director, MinisterPlenipotentiary,FrenchEmbassy,NewYork.

CorrespondencedatedMay2,1973,withCarlosLamero,Director,PortugueseTouristandInformationOffice,NewYork.

Foreign Service Institute. “List by Post of Useful Languages for U.S. Foreign ServicePurposesatOverseasPosts.”

Hayes, Curtis W., Orenstein, Jacob, and Gage, William W. ABC’s of Languages andLinguistics.SilverSprings,MD:InstituteofModernLanguages,1977.Appendix.

Muller, Siegfried H. The World’s Living Languages. New York: Frederick UngarPublishingCo.,1964.

Rice, Frank A. (Ed.). Study of the Role of Second Languages in Asia, Africa and LatinAmerica.Washington,D.C.:CenterforAppliedLinguistics,1962.

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