The week's gains
Well, this week was pretty crazy here. Not going to bore people with details but will just say that very little active study was done. Perhaps only 20 words out of the proposed 60 were memorised.
Not a train smash as I have having lightening strikes all week.
What lightening
The theory which was put forward at the beginning of all of this was a very simple one: memorise enough words and the natural mechanisms of the brain will do their magic, its just a matter of being aware of what's happening. More and more this seems to be the case.
The idea of a reference bank of vocabulary in the mind is a stagnant idea. One dimensional. Its too simple. However, take the same idea and add growth and depth and it becomes a saving grace.
Allow me to elaborate.
The brain is introduced to a new item (lexical, grammatical, prepositional, situational and cultural collocations). The brain attaches one cognitive link to this idea. As time passes and the brain incurs more information, more links are established as the brain takes the memory and connects it to the new information. The new information could modify the memory in some way (a correction/ variation) or just add another situation in which to use it.
Two examples:
1) English: a student learns the word “light”, attaches the meaning of a source of bright energy which we use in everyday life to function at night – light bulb. This is a one dimensional memory, perhaps only one link. Every time the learner encounters a light, his memory sparks. Every time he reads something with the word light, his memory sparks. Now he encounters a new piece of information, light: the opposite of heavy. Memory is now stronger and has an added dimension. Meaning the individual is more likely to remember and therefore produce the item. Maybe the learner encounters the expression “the lights are on but nobodies home”. Now the memory has several links, pronunciation comes into play, appropriateness, etc.
2) Spanish: I learnt an expression “no te vayas por las ramas”. Basic translation is to stay on topic, don't go off the point. Single dimension memory. Memorised it, practised it, etc. I understood that “ramas” was branches, but I didn't know what “vayas” was, especially since I have never seen the written form, only heard the spoken form. It sounds like “bashes” hence my memory made this connection (modifying the meaning to be more similar to beat about the bush, which isn't accurate and I knew it but decided I would worry about it later). Yesterday I was walking down the street and saw a woman washing her car and keeping an eye on her toddler. The toddler started running away from his mom, to which she shouted “no te vayas!”. Memory modified with another context and now the expression has a more accurate meaning. “No te vayas” is saying “don't go running off/ don't go off” therefore the original expression has more of a meaning of “don't go off on a tangent, stay on the topic”. A memory with at least 3 dimensions and 2 situations.
Thanks to this understanding, another thing I should mention is that it is becoming increasingly easier to read and understand Spanish in the written form (subtitles, comics, emails, texts, books, etc.) The cognitive association which happens on a daily basis gains momentum and grows exponentially.
I think its also fair to comment here on bilingualism. People worrying about kids growing up confused because they don't know which language to use, people worried that they aren't gifted with languages and therefore would waste their time studying one, the level that one needs to be at to be considered bilingual.
If you come at this from a cognitive point of view, it benefits you in every way by engaging cognition. And as long as the person is communicatively competent, it is sufficient. No mystery.
I feel very confident about my goals and meeting the deadlines.
Same weekly plan this week, more active and passive study.
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