aSSaLaMuaLaiKuM wBt =)
A few minutes ago, I was browsing some info about language. I've already got this kind of tutorial on our first day of the real mass lecture. We have to describe language with something animate.. I've found this interesting and well-composed analogy from the web which I agree with the analogy made, so I want to share it with all the readers(if you wanna read it ^_^)
Learning a city
The average person grows up living in one city. You start out learning the basics: where’s your house, then what’s on your street, then what’s in your neighborhood, and so on. Eventually as you get older you know all the locations of all the hot spots; you can point someone to the nearest gas station from anywhere in town. You know the best restaurants and the cheapest stores.
But maybe you get a big job offer one day, and move to a new city. When you first move to the new city, you’re right back to basics again. You learn how to get to work and how to get home. There’s often a sense of frustration because “back home” you know where everything is, but in this new place you can’t seem to get anywhere or find anything!
Some people start by learning where the highways are. Some people try to learn what the major roads are, or where the well-known landmarks sit. Some people start by trying to learn the names of particular neighborhoods. But even with a good map in your hands, you don’t know which neighborhoods are safe after dark, or what part of town has the best Chinese food.
You figure out how to get to the grocery store, even as you wear out the path between work and home. You try a few restaurants, a few bars, a theater, you start to build up the confidence to get around, but it takes a very long time, and it all radiates out in a slow, ever-growing relationship to that well-worn road between work and home. But eventually you’re spending a lot of time in new places, and one day you find yourself giving directions to someone from out of town.
Learning a language
And this is how it goes with a language! You start with the well-worn road of basic phrases. Saying hello and goodbye in a half dozen ways until you want to choke on it.
Then you learn phonics and start sounding out words. This is like getting a map of the city — it has all the information you need to get around, but it still doesn’t tell you where anything is, or whether you’re going to like this restaurant or that club.
Sooner or later, we all have to go through the long, hard journey of learning grammar and building vocabulary: learning nouns, verbs, conjugations, declensions, and so on. It takes a lot of time, but eventually, we can reach a point where we can give directions without looking at a map.
And eventually, you pick up the slang and the idioms and the expressions that show you you understand the language. Finally, your new language city becomes your second home.
Nothing is free
The important thing that this analogy really brings to light is the fact that it takes time, effort, work, and repetition to learn. That doesn’t mean it’s hard — easy and hard are nothing more than words to describe how much you resist doing the work. Nothing is impossible.
The knowledge only comes with experience, but the experience can be quite an adventure. If you only explore once a week, you’ll be learning the city for a long time… but if you spend a few hours every night driving around in new neighborhoods, it won’t be very long until you know where everything is.
So what are you waiting for? Grab your map and go explore your language!
