The Linguist A Personal Guide to Language Learning.pdf

The Linguist

A Personal Guide to Language Learning

By Steve Kaufmann

A Personal Guide to Language Learning

The Linguist is a trademark of Steve Kaufmann

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permis-

sion in writing from Steve Kaufmann, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief

passages in a review.

First edition July 2003

Printed in Canada

ISBN 0-9733394-0-3

Published in Canada by Steve Kaufmann

Book design by Tracey Martinsen

Table of Contents

Zhuangzi’s Crooked Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Are You a Linguist? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

About Learning English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

About this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

A LANGUAGE ADVENTURE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Start of the Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Two Solitudes in Montreal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

I Take Charge of My Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Off to Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

My Adventure Begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

“Sciences Po” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Travel and Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Hitchhiking in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Paris in the 1960s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

My First Real Job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Discovering Asian Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Creating An Opportunity, Ottawa 1967 . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Intensity, Hong Kong 1968. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Reading and Vocabulary Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

The Importance of Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Pronunciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Crossing Into China, Canton 1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Working and Learning in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Setting Language Goals, Tokyo 1971. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Seeking Out Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Is Japanese Difficult? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Polite Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Japan Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Fitting In. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Exploring Languages at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

A World Apart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

German . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Italian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Cantonese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Language and International Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Success. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

THE ATTITUDE OF A LINGUIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Just Communicate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Resistance to Language Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Overcoming Resistance to Language Learning . . . . . . 87

Communicate at Your Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Discover Language Naturally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

The Limits of Language Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Natural Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Identity and Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

The Fundamental Similarity of Human Beings . . . . . . 108

Human Culture is Universal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Individuals in a Shrinking World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

HOW TO LEARN A LANGUAGE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Conviviality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Focus On Input First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Learning Words and Phrases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Learn To Express Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Pronunciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Create Intensity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Invest in the Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Set Clear Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

A Final Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

For Immigrants and Potential Immigrants to Canada . . . . 139

A History of English Speaking Canada. . . . . . . . . . . . 139

The Immigrant Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Job Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Zhuangzi’s Crooked Tree

Huizi said to Zhuangzi, “This old tree is so crooked and rough that it is

useless for lumber. In the same way, your teachings have no practical use.”

Zhuangzi replied, “This tree may be useless as lumber, but you could rest

in the gentle shade of its big branches or admire its rustic character. It only

seems useless to you because you want to turn it into something else and

don’t know how to appreciate it for what it is. My teachings are like this.”

Zhuangzi, the Taoist philosopher, is supposed to have lived in

China over 2,300 years ago. He encouraged people to achieve

their potential through effortlessness, by not resisting their own

natures.

His famous story about the crooked tree appeals to me for

many reasons. Being in the forest industry, I know that a

crooked tree is not suitable for making standard commodity

lumber products, but it can make high quality decorative

products which feature its natural beauty and individuality.

Such a tree has grown to a ripe old age by adapting itself to its

environment. Whereas the trees in the industrial forest are

straight and look alike, the crooked tree grew alone, or with a

mixture of other trees of different ages and species. This kind

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