We normally think of efficiency, brain enhancing substances, extraordinary software and stream-lined cutting edge methods when we think of improving our learning capabilities. There is an entirely different aspect of learning which I have encountered in my long career as a student and a language learner: Love, Beauty and Nature. We are so efficient, having become multi-tasking masters and super-focused planners. We may be doing more, but are we actually becoming more accomplished? Are we more fulfilled and happy? I believe the answer is we are not. Being an artist, musician, meditator and lover of nature, I have followed a very different path: I require the presence of beauty, fulfillment and pleasure in all the tasks I undertake. Cast me into hell and I will paint on the walls of my dungeon, I will write poems about the beauty of the rising flames, and I will breathe my awareness of the present moment.
Yet, in spite of following paths considered less desirable or dead-ends by many in our efficient, goal-oriented society, I have succeeded in becoming fluent in eight or nine languages. I do study hard – sometimes almost fanatically – but I am able to maintain my focus and happiness through time. Looking back on how I became accomplished in multiple language, I notice some common elements and patterns. They are perhaps obvious and easy to apply but they are at the core of my success in learning languages.
Love, Beauty and Nature
Learning a language is a subconscious activity. You may work like a slave in Roman salt mines but you cannot impose the absorption or integration of a language onto your brain/mind. The more you experience the beauty of your new language, of its sounds of its grammar, of its culture, of its world view, the easier it is to keep a powerful,spontaneous and unending desire to improve your skills. I have had highly intelligent language students who became very frustrated in spite of their urgent need and high motivation to learn a new language. They lacked one thing: the actual desire to learn and a genuine attraction for their new language. They were in purgatory or jail, waiting to be released with a new skill at their command. Painters love color, creative programmers love the elegance of their code, lovers love their beloved. Language learners must also be in love with the object of their pursuit.
Language is music, mathematics, theater, history, culture and art rolled into one. Ignore this, and even if you learn a new language, you will miss much of its depth and the pleasure of knowing it.
What do nature and breathing have to do with the intelligent pursuit of learning a language? Everything in my case. Separate me from access to nature and I feel restricted and incomplete, while the breathing techniques I use daily (from yoga and qi gong) improve my brain functions, relaxation and general health. They allow me to concentrate powerfully on the object of my study without normal fatigue. Without nature and breathing meditations I would be a pale insubstantial shadow of who I am today.
At a later date, I will write in more detail about this accessing of the right cerebral hemisphere. One of its consequences is the experience of bliss in ordinary circumstances. Poets and artists routinely experience this phenomenon. It can only enhance whatever experience you are engaged in.
You must naturally discover your own path of beauty and bliss as you apply it to your language learning. Yet, the more powerfully you access it, the easier and the more effortless your progress will be.
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