Unconsciously Mastering English

I heard an untrue story, but it had a lot of truth in it.  

One day a boy apprenticed with a master gemologist. 

At the beginning of everyday the master would put a piece of jade in the boys hand and talk with the boy as the master went about his work.  

This went on for several weeks. Finally, one morning the boy asked the master when he could start learning the craft. 

The master blindfolded the boy and placed a regular stone in the boys hand.  The boy dropped the stone in surprise and shouted, “That’s not jade!”.  

We, just like that boy, want to learn as quickly and efficiently as possible. And why not? As the world connects, competition grows. We’re always looking for an edge, and for better or for worse English has become one of those competitive edges. 

And what that actually means is learning is a competitive edge. The better you can do it, the sharper your edge. No wonder we’re excited by language learning methods that promise quick, easy results.  

But, today’s message is more sobering. Like the young boy holding the jade came to understand, learning is not quick and, as we’ll see, it’s not always conscious, either.  

Imagine doing an entire cardio workout in one-minute? It’s possible. You can condense a 30 minute workout into just one single minute of high-intensity activity (with a few minutes on either side for warm up and warm down). That’s efficient! 

You can efficiently learn about another language, too. But is it really more like learning “about” a language, not actually using the language. Yes, you can force feed yourself a lot grammar and vocabulary and repeat them on a test but that’s about it. But, that’s not the type of use and feel that knowledge in conversation is a different type of learning. 

And, it’s a type of learning that takes time.

Connecting an abstract grammar form to something meaningful and visceral that you feel in your chest takes time. It’s a deeper learning. Grammar forms have subtle meanings. Collocations and phrases and chunks of language take time to absorb their meanings. That sort of understanding takes time to cultivate and grow, like a tree slowly growing. Speed reading or speed learning doesn't help. That’s what our boy apprentice holding the piece of jade came to grips with, and what we need to appreciate: 

Real learning is slow. 

And, learning has a creepy unconscious process, too.

My wife started humming a song last week and I joined her. The weird part was I didn’t know the song. And yet, here I was, singing with her.

I laughed in amazement when she told me the tune was a looping background music song from our local convenience store.

I never consciously learned the song, but part of me was learning it every time I heard it. 

Welcome to the world of unconscious learning. It’s real . . . and frankly, it’s a bit creepy. 

So, you and I go about our day learning what we want to learn - great. However, and I repeat, however, there is another level of all of us that’s learning, too. It’s learning, monitoring, recognizing and absorbing the environment we’re in - and it’s completely unconscious.  

We have no idea it’s doing this. And yet, it affects us. It influences us. 

And it happens in language learning, too. Children learn languages unconsciously very well. That’s one of the reasons adults are jealous of a child’s learning abilities. That unconscious learning ability drops in adults but it never disappears. We always have the ability. And if you monitor yourself you might catch yourself using a phrase or grammar you never really studied. I know I have.

And, this is precisely the other lesson the master gemologist taught the young apprentice. Learning is unconscious. Which is why exposure to a language is so important. Put that language in front of you - read it, listen to it. Anything, everything. Just get it in front of you and that unconscious learning system built inside of you will get to work and start finding the patterns. It will help you connect feeling to grammar when you speak. 

Of course, the challenging part is we don’t see this learning. Or more importantly, we don’t feel this type of learning. So, there are empty periods when we’re disappointed with our language, or rather our lack of lack progress. This is normal. But, have faith in your unconscious self. You can’t feel it but it’s there. It will grow your language. Just give what it needs - lots of exposure.  

So how do we apply this slow and unconscious learning to language learning? 

Well, like I just mentioned, deep learning is slow. We have much less control over our learning than we like to admit. We can’t learn what we want when we want. The proof? I bet you’re still struggling with grammatical problems you’ve studied for years. 

And what’s worse, we don’t feel deep language learning, we only see results - occasionally. Deep learning is really an act of faith. The research and experience shows us that unconscious learning still operates in adults (although much more in children) and we need to accept this even though we can’t feel it - faith.  

And there’s no sense in getting angry or frustrated with a lack of improvement. It’s simply relinquishing control to a degree. 

But, you also have a different type of control now that you understand how important unconscious learning is. You can design your environment for exposure. Watch movies, listen to podcasts, saturate your environment with all sorts of language cues. There’s nothing intentional about it, you simply enjoy the process. Because, by simply exposing yourself to the input you’re letting your unconscious do what it does well - learn.  

And, yes, you do need to learn consciously. Adults, more than children, need to study, a lot. However, the conscious learning is in a dance with the unconscious learning. Conscious learning will cue the unconscious to start looking for certain patterns and unconscious exposure will point the conscious on what to focus on. 

So, let’s take a lesson from a wise old gemologist. 

Patiently expose yourself to the language your learning.