It’s always a treat to hear your thoughts on such topics. Years ago I took a sociolinguistics class on bilingualism and multilingualism, and even then I found it fascinating. Not only are there neurological bases for studying these issues, but there are ethnolinguistic and sociocultural bases as well (to name but a few.)
I listened to your podcast a few times before commenting because I was strolling through my memories of my joys of lifelong language learning (recalling where I was, what I was doing, why I was doing it.) I have had the chance to study many languages at school and university, and what I found was that they always strengthened my love of and respect for my English tongue. And they took me on voyages of discovery and wonder.
I find that if language learners can engage with the things that interest them, sports, arts, philosophy, gardening, travel and so forth, then they can swiftly improve their grasp. Using your M3 techniques of location-based mnemonics along with other techniques of gestural, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, musical, dance, poetics as well as social gatherings such as concerts, group activities, readings and theatrical or studio events, language learners have a wealth of resources from which to benefit.
I had another epiphany while I was listening to the podcast. Everything is language. Genomes, DNA, byte code, mathematics, music, eating, living: simply everything is language.
If everything is language therefore, and if we communicate with language and with memories, then all things can be learned if we wish to do so.
Your class sounds amazing, something I would enjoy attending very much. Do you recall any of the texts you read?
Yes, I think studying other languages usually does increase one’s appreciation of their mother tongue. There is nothing quite like seeing something so firmly ensconced in your own mind from a completely new angle. This effect is also what the memory techniques on offer here help people achieve for all information: A rhizomatic reconsideration of the previously known through the lens of new things run through the kaleidoscope of the Magnetic Modes.
Thanks as ever for your wonderful contributions and look forward to your next comment post! 🙂
I remember none of the texts as such; however, the essential concepts touched on encoding and decoding (as the bilingual begins to learn, he may be tempted to translate orally word for word, which doesn’t work very well because we tend to speak and think idiomatically.) Code switching in NYC among Anglo-Hispanic speakers as well as in Canada and Wales. Sociological, psychological, political and economic factors in bilingualism, language learning and acquisition. (Once excellent book I recall from that time is by JF Vinay & J Darbelnet, “Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais.” I believe the authors may also have done one comparative French and German stylistics work; but that was more for the stylistics and lexicology classes.)
As a Canadian expat, you are likely aware of recent language-based political issues in Quebec, with Francophone and Anglophone debates (however, in the current geopolitical climate there are far more languages and cultures enriching Quebec and Canada). Moreover, there is the historic cultural and linguistic genocide of Canadian First Nations wherein the traditional languages, cultural and spiritual practices and traditional land-use and sustenance bases were horribly curtailed through systemic Residential School and other Church and State sociopolitical abuses. This has caused many of Canada’s indigenous youth to lose their vibrant and evocative languages and to live in existential and economic squalor.
So we do what we can; and we learn what we can. If there are opportunities to learn a few words of Algonquin, or Haida, or Inuktitut, we should go for it.
Yes, many issues to be explored, not all of them easy.
Have you read Language Death by David Crystal?
I found it in the state library here while looking for Aboriginal language study materials. Instead I found explanations of why there aren’t many left to learn from, not to mention people to speak with.
Languages are living entities, like plants, animals — all flora and fauna.
SIL estimates that one-third of all natural languages extant are endangered! This is why we need to think globally and act locally.
I have not yet read the book by David Crystal, and I hope to do so soon.
I encourage those Magnetic Memory Method aficionadas and aficionados to apply your superbly wrought techniques to studying languages. In fact, memory palaces are splendid resources to improve one’s own language! Imagine the wealth of new vocabulary learners could gain by devising a new set of MP from A to Z (with dynamic bridge figures from, say Archie Andrews to ZZ Top) to bump up their own working vocabularies!
Using S.I.P., D.E.E.P., and all the other essential acronyms you have concocted!
It is an interesting issue, to be sure.
I do admire Crystal’s book very much and your relating languages to flora and fauna.
However, if languages are “living” in this way, then they too must follow laws of nature. Human’s like to take responsibility for the extinction of many things, but things died out long before we arrived on the scene.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for language preservation provided it’s not politicized. But an immediate 80/20 principle comes to mind in addition to a basic position I think we should all hold related to a free market that asks us to uphold our contracts, respect private property and avoid the use of force.
Languages have died out as a result of violations on all three fronts and we can evidence this well (Crystal does so and provides many additional citations).
But we also have to acknowledge the interests and demands of the present world stage and avoid reifying language as such so that it can evolve unhindered. Lynne Kelly and I touched on this issue in our interview about The Memory Code.
Her book and being in Australia deeply inspired me to learn an Aboriginal language. I have experienced many interesting (and sometimes tedious) adventures since. The ultimate question arose quickly:
To what end would such a language be learned when the Big Five would be severely constrained and I would essentially be forced to attend a university to even approach the Big Five lest the language take up a profoundly lonely residence in my mind with contact constrained by political issues?
By way of contradiction, I have been spending a small amount of with Sanskrit with similarly limited potential to Big Five it. Yet, I find it more rewarding because the limited occasions to use it socially come packed with more edifying outcomes.
Who knows? I might actually go back to university just to study. That would be in Darwin and it tempts part of me because I also miss university life. But even my recent focus on Chinese has drawn much less interest and attention than German or French or, especially Spanish, and for the reasons outlined above, it is difficult to say that this “should” be different based on a flora and fauna principle.
Even if some languages are flourishing while others appear to die at the behest of political entanglements in the world economy, it’s difficult to square the need for action against the actual behavior of the market matched by evolution.
Alas, no matter the language or the purpose for learning it, as you point out, the memory techniques will serve. As they say in the business world, “Take an spoon or a bucket. The ocean does not care.”
Likewise with the MMM Memory Palace strategy. Take one Memory Palace or a dozen. The oceans of information are there to be gathered. The size of your net and how regularly you cast it into the waters is up to you. One S.I.P. at a time, D.E.E.P. and always with an eye to getting to your excellent H.O.M.E. concept (Huge Outcomes Mean Exercise).
Thanks as ever and look forward to your next contribution to this discussion about the power, glory and massive power of human memory for accomplishing learning goals big and small. 🙂
Hello Anthony,
Thanks for an excellent podcast.
It’s always a treat to hear your thoughts on such topics. Years ago I took a sociolinguistics class on bilingualism and multilingualism, and even then I found it fascinating. Not only are there neurological bases for studying these issues, but there are ethnolinguistic and sociocultural bases as well (to name but a few.)
I listened to your podcast a few times before commenting because I was strolling through my memories of my joys of lifelong language learning (recalling where I was, what I was doing, why I was doing it.) I have had the chance to study many languages at school and university, and what I found was that they always strengthened my love of and respect for my English tongue. And they took me on voyages of discovery and wonder.
I find that if language learners can engage with the things that interest them, sports, arts, philosophy, gardening, travel and so forth, then they can swiftly improve their grasp. Using your M3 techniques of location-based mnemonics along with other techniques of gestural, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, musical, dance, poetics as well as social gatherings such as concerts, group activities, readings and theatrical or studio events, language learners have a wealth of resources from which to benefit.
I had another epiphany while I was listening to the podcast. Everything is language. Genomes, DNA, byte code, mathematics, music, eating, living: simply everything is language.
If everything is language therefore, and if we communicate with language and with memories, then all things can be learned if we wish to do so.
Pretty DEEP I must say.
All good wishes to you Dr. Métivier.
Thanks for your thoughts, Alex, and for alluding to Improving Memory Power With The D.E.E.P. Formula. That was a fun session!
Your class sounds amazing, something I would enjoy attending very much. Do you recall any of the texts you read?
Yes, I think studying other languages usually does increase one’s appreciation of their mother tongue. There is nothing quite like seeing something so firmly ensconced in your own mind from a completely new angle. This effect is also what the memory techniques on offer here help people achieve for all information: A rhizomatic reconsideration of the previously known through the lens of new things run through the kaleidoscope of the Magnetic Modes.
Thanks as ever for your wonderful contributions and look forward to your next comment post! 🙂
I remember none of the texts as such; however, the essential concepts touched on encoding and decoding (as the bilingual begins to learn, he may be tempted to translate orally word for word, which doesn’t work very well because we tend to speak and think idiomatically.) Code switching in NYC among Anglo-Hispanic speakers as well as in Canada and Wales. Sociological, psychological, political and economic factors in bilingualism, language learning and acquisition. (Once excellent book I recall from that time is by JF Vinay & J Darbelnet, “Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais.” I believe the authors may also have done one comparative French and German stylistics work; but that was more for the stylistics and lexicology classes.)
As a Canadian expat, you are likely aware of recent language-based political issues in Quebec, with Francophone and Anglophone debates (however, in the current geopolitical climate there are far more languages and cultures enriching Quebec and Canada). Moreover, there is the historic cultural and linguistic genocide of Canadian First Nations wherein the traditional languages, cultural and spiritual practices and traditional land-use and sustenance bases were horribly curtailed through systemic Residential School and other Church and State sociopolitical abuses. This has caused many of Canada’s indigenous youth to lose their vibrant and evocative languages and to live in existential and economic squalor.
So we do what we can; and we learn what we can. If there are opportunities to learn a few words of Algonquin, or Haida, or Inuktitut, we should go for it.
The Inukshuk is a Memory Palace after all.
Qujannamiik! 😉
Yes, many issues to be explored, not all of them easy.
Have you read Language Death by David Crystal?
I found it in the state library here while looking for Aboriginal language study materials. Instead I found explanations of why there aren’t many left to learn from, not to mention people to speak with.
Languages are living entities, like plants, animals — all flora and fauna.
SIL estimates that one-third of all natural languages extant are endangered! This is why we need to think globally and act locally.
I have not yet read the book by David Crystal, and I hope to do so soon.
I encourage those Magnetic Memory Method aficionadas and aficionados to apply your superbly wrought techniques to studying languages. In fact, memory palaces are splendid resources to improve one’s own language! Imagine the wealth of new vocabulary learners could gain by devising a new set of MP from A to Z (with dynamic bridge figures from, say Archie Andrews to ZZ Top) to bump up their own working vocabularies!
Using S.I.P., D.E.E.P., and all the other essential acronyms you have concocted!
It is an interesting issue, to be sure.
I do admire Crystal’s book very much and your relating languages to flora and fauna.
However, if languages are “living” in this way, then they too must follow laws of nature. Human’s like to take responsibility for the extinction of many things, but things died out long before we arrived on the scene.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for language preservation provided it’s not politicized. But an immediate 80/20 principle comes to mind in addition to a basic position I think we should all hold related to a free market that asks us to uphold our contracts, respect private property and avoid the use of force.
Languages have died out as a result of violations on all three fronts and we can evidence this well (Crystal does so and provides many additional citations).
But we also have to acknowledge the interests and demands of the present world stage and avoid reifying language as such so that it can evolve unhindered. Lynne Kelly and I touched on this issue in our interview about The Memory Code.
Her book and being in Australia deeply inspired me to learn an Aboriginal language. I have experienced many interesting (and sometimes tedious) adventures since. The ultimate question arose quickly:
To what end would such a language be learned when the Big Five would be severely constrained and I would essentially be forced to attend a university to even approach the Big Five lest the language take up a profoundly lonely residence in my mind with contact constrained by political issues?
By way of contradiction, I have been spending a small amount of with Sanskrit with similarly limited potential to Big Five it. Yet, I find it more rewarding because the limited occasions to use it socially come packed with more edifying outcomes.
Who knows? I might actually go back to university just to study. That would be in Darwin and it tempts part of me because I also miss university life. But even my recent focus on Chinese has drawn much less interest and attention than German or French or, especially Spanish, and for the reasons outlined above, it is difficult to say that this “should” be different based on a flora and fauna principle.
Even if some languages are flourishing while others appear to die at the behest of political entanglements in the world economy, it’s difficult to square the need for action against the actual behavior of the market matched by evolution.
Alas, no matter the language or the purpose for learning it, as you point out, the memory techniques will serve. As they say in the business world, “Take an spoon or a bucket. The ocean does not care.”
Likewise with the MMM Memory Palace strategy. Take one Memory Palace or a dozen. The oceans of information are there to be gathered. The size of your net and how regularly you cast it into the waters is up to you. One S.I.P. at a time, D.E.E.P. and always with an eye to getting to your excellent H.O.M.E. concept (Huge Outcomes Mean Exercise).
Thanks as ever and look forward to your next contribution to this discussion about the power, glory and massive power of human memory for accomplishing learning goals big and small. 🙂