Forgetting Words Means I'm Learning Them
hi there Steve Kaufman here and today I
want to talk about something that
happens all the time in language
learning and that is forgetting and I
want to talk about it in the context of
going back to a language that we have
left for a period of time so if you have
been following my videos from South
America you know that I'm just there for
a month and of course I didn't do any
Arabic I spoke Spanish
mostly and Portuguese while in Brazil
spoke a lot with taxi drivers and I was
reading books I bought books on the
history of Argentina the history of
Brazil the history of Peru
I bought other books so I was constantly
involved in Spanish and Portuguese so
mellenburg
I'm not back in Vancouver yet I'm in
Palm Springs because as you know we my
wife and I winter are spent part of the
winter here so first day back and so I
went there's a little gym here where we
live so I went there and you know had a
little bit of a workout and of course I
was listening to Arabic haven't listened
to Arabic now for a month so as I'm
listening to my mini stories which I
have on a playlist in my little iPod
of course now as I listen to these
stories that I had listened to before
I'm finding that there are words that I
have forgotten and but it's very
interesting what happens when you leave
a language for a while so I listen there
are words that I have forgotten but then
there are also words and phrases and
structures that I notice more clearly
than ever so that the break from the
Arabic and the exposure to the Spanish
and Portuguese seems to have made me a
little more maybe the Arabic now seems
fresh to me but I hear certain things
more clearly I know do certain
structures more clearly and yet there
are words that I forgot
of course the structure of the many
stories is sites that the structures and
the vocabulary in one forum or not or
another repeats so if I don't get it the
first time with the context and having
heard it before and hearing in a
different tense or a different person I
kind of pick up on it but still for a
lot of it I have to go back now again
and read it and maybe look up the word
again
but as I'm doing it I am quite confident
in the fact that all the things that I
have now forgot forgotten when I go back
and relearn them I will end up knowing
them better than I ever did so the work
that I did in my first pass through in
Arabic is kind of like you know
preparing the ground and so then I can
leave it for a while and when I now go
back it's as if the ground that I
fertilized is now ready for for you know
the the plans to kind of rise even even
further I know that from experience
and I know that there's research that
shows that when we learn and forget and
relearn we end up the way our brain
works we have a better grasp on those
things so I'm not discouraged by the
fact that having left Arabic for a month
I go back and listen and there are
things that I have forgotten I've done
it before I've left languages for six
months and I go back and of course I've
forgotten things but if I then stay with
it then I end up learning it better
because after all when I first started
on Arabic I couldn't read anything I
couldn't read the letters I didn't
understand anything none of it made any
sense I didn't have any sense of the
structure and now when I go in after a
month's absence you know quickly I'm
reminded of a lot of the words of a lot
of the structure I notice it better and
I know that even those things that I
have forgotten and still can't remember
after listening to the stories when I go
back in and read it again
then it'll once again be it'll be
relearned and it'll be in there stronger
than ever and then I will go into new
material and of course into the new
material I will again be in fact
revisiting certain words revisiting
certain structures and so I'll be
plowing forward so it's just to say that
some people say well what do you do you
know I leave a language if I leave it
will I forget it and people are so
concerned about taking a break from
their language studies and I believe
that if your language learning is based
on massive input massive reading and
listening and if you're motivated by an
interest in the language and interest in
things culture surrounding the language
you needn't worry about leaving it for a
month or two or three when you go back
in there very quickly you'll be back to
where you were and stronger than ever
and so that's kind of been it's just
kind of thought to cross my mind
as I was in the gym listening to my
Arabic many stories there you have it
bye for now
[Music]
