Voyage of Languages overview

Out of every 20 people who set out to learn another language, only 1 succeeds. 

This fact, if true (because I forget where I read it), is utterly mind-blowing when you consider that practically everyone learns their mother tongue without any problem. So why the disparity?

Something's very wrong here. So many of us can't all be failures. 

To my mind, it's the educating system that has failed. It hasn't done languages well. Language-learning in the classroom is a negative experience. Students become bored, frustrated, impatient, disillusioned, disappointed and just generally stressed. Their attempts are short-lived, aborted. Schooling effectively destroys any latent love of languages. We are damaged goods in that regard.

Yet this failure represents a huge potential for improvement.

So I'd love to reclaim the magic by: 

1. Establishing a few principles 
2. Creating a conducive environment

I want to engage with a group of bold, playful, resourceful, cooperative, active, interested and interesting members. Together, we'll launch our Voyage of Languages (elsewhere referred to as the Languages Arena)

Given that the condition of language learners is that of castaways stranded on a desert island, I seek applicants from those suitably qualified (just as Shackleton is said to have done). Let's form a small tribe. Let's build a small raft. No mutineers, if you please!

Why 'Voyage'?

Languages are quintessentially connected with being human. They range where human beings have roamed. They are vitally connected to our history, geography, stories, cultures, migrations, and evolution. They are as vital and alive as us.

Therefore, learning another language ought to be one of the most exciting things that anyone could imagine doing! That it isn’t always is why I’ve made it my mission to liberate languages from the classroom. School is not the place for them. 

So where do they belong? Out in the wide world, of course. And how do we learn them? The answer is that we don’t. We shouldn’t try to. Learning a language is impossible ( and so is ‘teaching’ one.) Instead, we may imbibe them. Soaking them up as we bask in the sun snug in our deck chairs.

The best environment that I can imagine acquiring an language—or two—is on a ship at sea, in pleasant company, under no time pressure, traveling between continents, calling in at islands, navigating straits and negotiating canals. It's the experience, not the destination.

I am of an age to have experienced global sea travel in the 1960s, in the last decade before flying became the norm. Between the ages of five and seven, I remember navigating through the Panama and Suez Canals and calling in at islands where coconuts bobbed in the harbor, spending six weeks at a time to span half the globe.

Those experience as magical, formative and enlightening. I believe in my bones that our exposure to and consequent mastery of new and exotic languages should occur in that same atmosphere of mystery and wonder. It ought to be exciting, dammit!  

Languages are taught methodically these days, though they weren’t always. People used to pick them up spontaneously without  strain. But to learn, consciously, with only the front of our brain ignores the rest of the iceberg below the waterline. And that, more often than not, unfortunately, leads to ‘Titanic’ failure. 

My vision is to lead an annual online Voyage of Languages. On our maiden voyage I wish to set out with an intrepid group of 100 pioneers. These will be special people. Our first trip will be exploratory in nature. Beliefs are bound to be challenged, and myths are likely to be dispelled. Is the world actually round? Does the Earth revolve around the Sun? ‘Be there dragons’ here and there, and maybe mermaids? Will we sail off the edge of the world? Shall we eventually discover treasure?

As a group everyone will need to learn the ropes and help out. We are bound to encounter storms and seasickness. It’ll be “All hands on deck!” during times of crises. But the rewards will be huge.

You’ll learn several of your choice languages in the course of this trip. Our sailing ship is limited to 100 berths, to give me ample time to devote to your needs. I seek applicants who resonate to this vision, and who have something to offer in the way of skills, experience and imagination. In future years I may need to call on some of you for help.

Each year our voyage will set off in more modern vessels. If you have actively engaged on a previous voyage you may be invited to take part on these for free, since your experience and expertise will be welcome. There’ll be a need for extra captains and staff. I see the scope of these expeditions increasing ten fold every year. Eventually we’ll form a fleet. In the second year, there will be 1000 of us, and by the 5^th year one million. Can you visualize one billion languages learners setting out in our 8^th year? If so, then I need you!

I want to revolutionize how people acquire new languages. To use the wording of R Buckminster Fuller, I don’t intend to fight the old paradigm of language learning but to put in place something that is so good that everyone immediately wants to leave the old way. I yearn to build a new model for language learning that makes the existing model obsolete. Actually, I mean to do no less than to undo Babel!

Are you with me? Do you see yourself as the pioneering type that would have boarded the Mayflower, the Kon Tiki, or even the Enterprise? In that case, this is your chance. 

"Beam me aboard, Scotty!"

Mission statement

The language learning industry is surely one whose clients are most unhappy. It produces such poor results. But this means there's a great potential. A person with the right ideas could revolutionize it and do the greatest amount of good.

I want to make it easy for anyone to acquire any language easily, enjoyably, effectively and affordably. That will require a language-learning revolution! Well, so be it. 

I'd like to make material easily available and affordable. I don't intend to talk anyone around to my point of view. It is up to individuals to decide for themselves whether or not they see something of value in my approach, and whether or not they wish to implement some of my ideas.

However, since learning a language is a long and ongoing journey (which I think of as a voyage), I want to create an online platform to serve an worldwide community of language learners. It will be the type of group that I would want to (and shall!) join.

To 'book a berth' aboard our ocean liner, members would pay a small monthly amount. There will be no 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes (no classes at all, in fact!). Everyone would encourage and support one another. No one will be permitted to suffer from seasickness ever!

We'll share ideas. I'll host monthly webcasts. Quoits, anyone?

Let's take a language cruise!

Realistic expectations and unlearning

It would be easy (for me) to suggest what to do.
It would be just as easy (for you) to dismiss my suggestion.

I might recommend singing comics out aloud in the shower while chewing gum on both sides of your mouth and watching keeping your eye on a foreign sports commentary in the next room as the best way to learn another language. (Don't worry, I won't.) But most people would need some convincing before doing something dramatically different from how they were taught.

I don't see that as my role. Instead, I'd prefer to present my ideas as clearly as possible for someone to decide on their own whether or not it looked promising.

However, people have been schooled to expect certain outcomes from a language learning course. In their minds, they have certain fixed ideas about how the process ought to unfold. But to paraphrase Albert Einstein:

One is never going to solve a problem by thinking about them in ways that created the problem in the first place.

So for anyone to assess my method's worth, they are going to have to do some background reading around it with an open mind. They might need to undergo some 'un-schooling'.

Realistically . . .

• Learning another language takes time. However, that time may be pleasant, like the time you willingly spend in your basement on a hobby.
• You will forget things many times. That's how the brain is meant to work in order to get things from your short term into your long term memory.
• Getting things wrong is the right way. Failures aren't failures. They are partial successes getting gradually better and better (unless you become  upset by them and stop trying).
• You won't achieve the goals you set. Your brain will learn things at its own rate in its own order. If you force the issue, you will only get in its way.
• Input before output. It's cart-before-the-horse to try speaking and writing before you get the language firmly in place via listening and reading.
• Teachers may help, but no teacher can teach you a language. No one ever has. No one ever will. You do it yourself.
• You don't have enough will power to learn a language. We have a limited amount of will power to spread over our daily activity. It's better to make language learning a habit. It should be light, regular and stimulating.

On my blog The Play-fool Tongue you are welcome to dip into these and other aspects of language learning.

How I see this happening

Here's my dream in bullet points:

• I provide an alternative, viable way for people, especially those who have previously 'failed', to acquire another language
• It is available to anyone, anywhere in the world, to acquire any language 
• It creates a mutually supportive and thriving community 
• It provides for me a modest income 
• It accepts useful ideas from like-minded individuals
• It succeeds in growing into a global movement  
• It offers online get-togethers in the form of monthly webinars and forums
• It eventually replaces conventional language instruction
• It accommodates whoever wishes to join. (Membership is limited to 100 foundation members increasing to a total of 1000 by the end of the 1st year, 10,000 by the end of the 2nd, 100,000 the 3rd, through to 1 billion by the end of the 7th year.)  

Yes indeed, 1 billion!
There are currently between one and one-and-a-half billion people learning English alone, so 1 billion members is actually a conservative and realistic figure.

My teaching experience

Ugh! My first draft of this post looked more like a CV (which I've refused to submit for years).

To summarize, I've taught in a variety of locations and situations.

I started out teaching Sciences, at high school level. Then I moved to India to teach Maths (or Math). That gave me the ability to speak Globish 15 years before it was invented ;-)

I worked as a Research Assistant at a medical school. As well as cleaning cages full of mice I came up with useful ideas that were included in published medical articles.

Later I had the opportunity of taking up a sister-city assistant English teacher post in Japan. That gave the push to train in ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) back in New Zealand.

I was able to follow my intuition and teach from the gut for a decade and a half at a time when there was no set syllabus. Then, when everything became too much fill-in-the-box, I moved to student learning support and helped everyone with literally everything.

I was the first person at my institution to apply computer technology to language learning. I also had a spell providing online student learning support at a distance, but unfortunately my ideas to promote the concept met with resistance from my colleagues.

Finally, I gained some experience working on my own and for several firms in Japan trying to teach English to the Japanese. I could write a book about it:

What I Learned in Japan about How NOT to Go About Learning Another Language!

In short, I feel that my teaching background uniquely qualifies me in the area of language acquisition (see also my Language Background).

My language background

• Most people learn their mother tongue once. I learned two mother tongues twice (long story)
• I failed at school with Latin and French
• I succeeded with German at University
• I thought about learning Italian in order to cycle around Europe
• I couldn't decide beyween Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu when I taught in North India
• I dipped my toe in Kiribati (Gilbertese)
• I've had an ongoing love-and-hate affair with Japanese
• I'm currently starting out in Spanish
• I intend to start one language per month for the next two years.

My academic stance

I respect the academic tradition. After all some of my best friends are academics :-)

I have worked in an academic sphere in High Schools and at  Polytechnical Institute and have received a good amount of academic training over the years: a BSc degree, a Trained Teacher's Diploma and a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Certificate.

Nevertheless I am not an academic. I don't wish to squeeze into that box. There's too much I'd have to sacrifice to play that game and jump those hoops.

You see, I also value experimentation, intuitive thinking, instinct and creativity. I believe that these are undervalued by the education industry.

I enjoy using both sides of my brain (together with my soul). I value hands-on experience, and have been fortunate enough to accumulate a couple of decade's worth regarding language acquisition.

Yes, I do believe that a lot of useful things have been discovered by academics, and I am fully prepared to make use of them. But I don't believe that organized education is the 'be all and end all'.

Would this be a fit for you?

This approach is not likely to be a fit for you if. . .

• you are satisfied with the techniques that you use
• your thinking is rigid
• you want quick and measurable results
• you can only see one way of doing things
• you find uncertainty uncomfortable
• you have a vested interest in some other method
• you believe in 'serious' schooling  

This may well be a fit for you if . . .

• you were frustrated and disgruntled by your previous efforts to learn a language 
• you enjoy interacting with other people
• you are independent
• you enjoy dabbling
• you dislike grammar
• you are patient with yourself
• you are intuitive
• you are open to new ideas

What is it to 'know' a language?

Knowing a language is not a black or white thing. It's not 'either/or'. It's like 50 shades of grey (and then some).

You can never know any language, including your own, completely. Experts might aim for 100%, but they'll never get there. Maybe 99%, or 98% for the rest of us.

Also, I think that it's unrealistic to expect to know another language as well as your first. After all, you've had 24 times 365 times your age hours worth of exposure to English (say). You'll never match that with Thai or Ukrainian.

That said, I'm happy to know a language as well as someone brought up in that language at the point of starting high school. That'd do me. And I'd put the emphasis on understanding it (listening and reading) rather than being able to speak or write it.

Once you understand everything that you read and hear, the rest will come with a bit of practice.

Key principles

Here I'd like to acknowledge the work of Stephen Krashen. His ideas, especially his acquisition-learning hypothesis, helped chart the course of the Voyage of Languages. Let me explain his hypothesis in simple language.

He claims that there are two ways in which we develop our language skill. We can learn it, or we we can just sort of 'pick it up'. The first happens consciously, usually at school. The second happens unconsciously--on the street, on the job or, dare I say it, between the sheets.

The scholarly way is respected. The rough and ready way is sneered at.

But guess which way is better? Which of the two does the job more quickly, more efficiently, more effectively and more enjoyably, do you think?

Basically, you need a lot of authentic input that you pay light attention to ("massive exposure" Stephen calls it). As long as you have a method to instantly understand what you are listening to or reading ("comprehensible input"), you brain will make sense of it (without anyone knowing exactly how).

You learn without knowing you've learned - as if by magic! This is similar to the way in which young children learn their first language.

My main maxims are these:

• No one can 'teach' you a language, and neither can you 'learn' them
• You get used to a language by pattern recognition
• Languages ought not to be broken down to be absorbed; keep them whole
• Use real texts that you listen to and read alongside translations in your own language
• If you haven't absorbed a new language within a year you ought to change your methods
• input before output

Financial position

My dream is to enable people to acquire languages in the best possible way. I don't want the need to earn a living to get in the way of that. And so, I intend to strike a balance. I guess that's what everyone does to pursue their life's work.

And so, I'm going to make my material available to anyone for the asking. It will come in electronic form . . . no postage, no trees cut down, and instantaneous. In so doing, people will go onto an emailing list from which they are welcome to unsubscribe at a later date. (But I won't recommend that, because I'll be updating things and putting out new material over time.)

If the recipient is in any way a resourceful person, then he or she may then fire ahead on their own and learn their chosen language using my methods.

However, if they feel that it would help them to keep up the momentum then they might consider becoming a member of the Voyage of Languages fraternity. They will be able to receive and give encouragement, and to sit in on monthly webinars.

Because people's means vary widely, I'm not going to insist on a fixed price. Indeed, I'm going to invite them to let me know what it is worth to them to belong to such a club. What's it worth for them to travel in good company on a language voyage? I'll throw in a free deckchair!

I might set a monthly minimum, perhaps the price of a cup of coffee.  I might set a maximum too--say a dollar a day. And if it turns out that I find myself subsisting on nothing but coffee I might need to do a little rethink! We'll see how things develop.

Co-volution

Every blog ought to have at least one post with a cryptic title! Consider this it.

So, what might 'co-volution' mean? Let me get around to that in a roundabout way . . .

I have a tendency to do things on my own. That's good, but not always.

I don't need to rely on anyone else, and neither do I need to convince people of my ideas. On the other hand, I miss out on valuable feedback, and there's only me to do the work!

So look, for this project I'm going to need outside help. And for the first time in my life, I'm going to ask for it.

My ideas for this project are not set in stone. My vision is somewhat fluid, flexible, malleable and whatnot. Therefore, in accord with the principle of social learning, I'm stepping outside of my comfort zone to invite external input.

I'd like to incorporate the best ideas of other people, assuming that they are onboard regarding the basic premises. (I'm not interested in debate simply for debate's sake.)

In short, what I hope to do is enlist the aid of skilled others with whom to co-develop, or co-evolve the Language Voyage Vision.

Initially I'm seeking to work with group of 100 pioneering language learning members. I'll spend a year with them, listening to what they say, incorporating their suggestions, discussing things, brainstorming and the like.

At the end of the year, I'll invite them to stay on as members without asking them for further subscription. They'll be invited to remain on as 'Elders' (to lift a term from elsewhere).

As time goes on, and I ramp up the language voyage, I'm going to be looking to employ other people, or enter into some sort of partnership with them to sail into new waters in other oceans. Naturally I'll consider first at the friends with whom I've already built up a relationship.

My apologies

Truth to tell, I may not be the best person to get this venture going, but I'm the only one who has the bag of tricks to make it work! 

And so there are a few things that you might need to put up with.

I'm not so good at small talk. Conversation stresses me out a little, I must confess. There either a little high-functioning Aspergers thing going on there, or else I'm just genuinely shy. Or eccentric.

And yet I genuinely like other people. I'm a great empathizer.

But I sometimes read people wrong. Plus, I can fall into a defensive way of reacting when I feel criticized or am alarmed. Maybe that's the result of being brought up by parents who went through a LOT of hardship in the second world war (losing 4 family members is just the start of it).

I sometimes get flustered when asked questions, since I don't give rehearsed answers but consider each of them from scratch (re-inventing the wheel, I know).

I think in large leaps and forget to explain my 'flights of fancy', therefor I can become impatient when others don't catch on immediately. Sorry guys.

Maybe sometimes people think my sense of humor is inappropriate, but I see the world as a funny place.

I wish the best for everyone, but am probably too idealistic for my own good (see my financial position).

Personal miscellania

Here you'll find additional personal information that is relevant but which doesn't fit elsewhere on this blog. (If I do later incorporate it elsewhere I'll remove it from this post).

For now, I'll 'book this space' by directing you to a 100 things about me post I once wrote and put in another blog.

I enjoy seeing what computers can do. In 1985 I spent what was then the price of a house on a photo-editing workstations with the intent of starting a business of creating cross-stitch tapestry kits. At that time I was probably the first in the world.

I have a strong urge to set myself challenges. Exploits include taking part in ultra-marathons, not to mention marathons themselves (barefoot and once in flip-flops/Jandals, bathroom slippers). I've cycled the length of Japan and walked the length of New Zealand barefoot.

I'm an ideas man. Not all of them are good. Not many of them are worth implementing. But then again, as Bob Woodruff says, "Every new idea is born drowning."

For 25 years I meditated near on 2 and a half hours a day. At the time I felt that that was the best way to achieve self-actualization, my ultimate goal.

Resources and links list

Various links to useful resources and sites

• 20 Tongues 20 Moons 60 Years 100 Words (where I document my own language voyage)
• 100 things about me (me in a nutshell)
• A Language, a Life (where I outline my language acquisition principles)
• My monthly YouTube vlog (to be launched)
• Languages Projectile (my open FaceBook languages group)
• Closed Facebook clients group (to be activated)
• Twitter link 
• Various members' sites (when they join up)
• Language-learning personalities: Steve Kaufmann, Benny Lewis, David Snopek, Stephen Krashen, David Bolton . . .
• The Polyglot Project (a free down-loadable book (in many formats) of first-hand language learner accounts)
• Polyglot: How I Learn Languages a book by Kato Lomb